


Phan(Tasma)Goria

by Browa123, Kimcat



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: (eventually) - Freeform, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Family Bonding, Gen, Identity Reveal, Mystery, Rewrite, Secrets, TASMA IS A CANON CHARACTER TURNED INTO A HALFA
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-01-25 01:24:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21347983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browa123/pseuds/Browa123, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimcat/pseuds/Kimcat
Summary: (Rewrite of the original Phantasmagoria, the what-if story of someone in Amity Park becoming half-ghost right under Danny's nose! But giving away who would certainly be no fun.)When a new set of ghost powers go haywire and black out the whole of Amity Park, Danny must deal with his carelessness in the form of a new halfa threatening to take his job, and his reputation. Will he be able to reason with this individual? Or have his mistakes doomed him to make a new eternal enemy?
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Comments: 24
Kudos: 69





	1. Quite the Shocker

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to ghostanimal for beta-ing!
> 
> This fic is both by Browa and Kimcat!

Danny twists and swerves around the ghost, using his morphological qualities to evade the hawk-like specter. The avian spirit refuses to quit, no matter what attacks Danny would throw at it.

Ice? It shakes off. Plasma? Not even the slightest damage to its feathery hide. Getting in close would be a bad idea. The ghost's beak and talons could rip him to shreds before even getting the chance, and a punch wouldn't do much on something even plasma can't scorch. 

On top of it all, Danny's been wrought with a horrible case of the hiccups. Despite all the remedies, the insistent hiccuping continues to even now. Each one causes a distraction in itself, jolting down his spine and making his lungs hurt.

Another hiccup sends another shock down his back, and the ghostly hawk takes the opportunity to attack. The distraction of the painful hiccup leaves Danny wide open. The specter lunges at high speed, raking its talons along his side and drawing ectoplasm from the wounds.

Danny lets out a pained cry from the inflicted scrapes. But he can't let his guard down as the bird swoops in for another swing. Barely managing to avoid the talons a second time, Danny finds himself pushing both ends of the hawk’s beak off his body.

The hawk lets out a cry that blasts in Danny's face. The improper position of him being caught between the upper and lower jaw has him in a bad spot. The ghost continues to apply pressure, straining Danny's limbs as he tries to avoid being cut in half by the beastly beak. The gashes on his side scream, but he continues pushing.

With his arms and legs feeling like they're about to give out and his bleeding side screaming with agony, Danny feels like he's running out of options. He feels another hiccup about to occur, dreading it causing him to lose his grip.

The jolt of energy moves up his spine. His focus on his hands take the sparking energy. And as if lighting a fuse, electric energy pours from Danny's hands and zap the hawk in the mouth.

Now in a pain of its own, the hawk recoils. It releases Danny while its beak smokes with electrical burns. The ghostly bird turns its beady red eyes to Danny, angry from the damage the Halfa had done.

On the other hand, Danny finally found his opening. Reaching into his core to draw more electric energy from within, he aims his hands at the lunging beak once more.

"Hey! Birdbrain!" Danny taunts, lining up his shot at the oncoming attack. The hawk's red eyes narrow. Danny smirks in a way that shows that he's already won the fight.

"Don't you know? Electricity is super effective against Flying types?" He quips, before shooting off the charged electrical energy right into the pointed beak of the ghost.

The hawk squawks in pain as the electric charge moves through its ectoplasmic insides. This causes sparks to flare all over the place across its spectral body.

The ghost begins to spazm, unable to stay airborne. The jolting bird, coated in electric sparks begins falling toward the ground. With the erratic movements of its wings, it makes touchdown, twitching and flapping ghostly feathers everywhere.

Unbeknownst to Danny, the bird had kareened right into a set of power lines. The jolts and sparks still coming off its electrocuted body begin to run down the now busted wiring, toward the city, before disappearing into the distance.

Danny touches down next to the twitching form. He dares not to get close, wanting to avoid being electrocuted ever again. He preps the Fenton Thermos to catch the bird and relieve it from its misery.

"And that's how you make fried chicken," Danny chuckles mostly to himself, already thinking of a million puns he could use in relation to the new power. "Quite the shocker, huh? A shock to the system, if you will?"

With his fun had, Danny uncaps the thermos, allowing the blue light to engulf the giant bird, disentangling it from the power lines and successfully trapping it. 

The ectoplasmic charged sparks from the bird shoot out along the injured, rubberized wires, spreading out and taking out a few transformers along its path into the city. The string of explosions ring out through the town seemingly drawn into a single source like a magnet.

It was, of course, seeking out the closest, and largest, charged source of ecto-electricity. Unfortunately for the Fenton Family, this happened to be the generator in the OPs center. 

The hunters don't think much of it when the generator started beeping, a warning for its overheating. Maddie and Jack go to investigate, before the resulting explosion knocks the pair back towards the wall, their own power failing them.

From below the Ops Center, the resulting blackout causes Jazz to scream, as well as confused shouts across the city reverberating as the power goes out all over town. Even the backup generators bust, the ecto-electric energy spreading at a rapid rate.

It fries through anything with ectoplasmic contamination. In Amity Park, that amounts to practically everything, hence the night soon being filled with popping, crackling, explosions and screams.

Maddie groaned holding her head. Her vision is filled with a dizzying sensation as the smoke clears. She looks to her husband, stumbling over to his side as he rubs his nose. “Are you alright dear?” she asks concern flaring in her eyes.

“Yea- I think so baby,” He looks her over blinking rapidly. He looks just as disoriented as she feels. “Though you um… got something here…” He reaches up to wipe away at a cut on her forehead. 

Maddie’s eyes widen as she takes in the amount of blood on his glove. “We- We should deal with that sooner rather than later hun,” She bites her lip as she prods at her head with a sigh of her own. “I’ll be fine… I think.”

“Yeah, come on… I’ll help you down hun,” Jack says, getting up. The two move to support each other on their way out of the Ops Center.

Danny hears the explosions from where he is, quite far from town. Dragging the hawk ghost from the city to limit how much damage it could have done must have left the town open to something else.

The transformers busting make a series of loud popping sounds, all the way back to the city, causes him to rush back home as quickly as he can. He needs to figure out what's going on!

Though, seeing the green sparks still leaking from his hand, matching up with the explosions in the distance, does not bode well for the Halfa…

"Oh no…"

Seeing the entire town blacked out only serves to make his concern grow, as even Fentonworks is pitch black, despite numerous back-up batteries and power savers his parents had invented.

Things only got weirder. His parents seem to stagger when he walks in the door, only sparing him a glance before retreating into the lab. 

Jazz is having a freak out session upstairs about not being able to see the college essay she's writing, and Danny can’t put the hawk back in the ghost zone with his parents in the lab.

With a defeated sigh, Danny ensures the thermos is capped and sealed tight before trudging up to his room. He still has some stinging, open wounds on his side to stitch up...

“Danny!” Jazz’s voice carries through the darkness before Danny is blinded by the flashlight on her phone. “I know you have something to do with this!” She half hisses half yells out to her little brother.

“What makes you think it’s my fault?” Danny asks innocently attempting to hide the thermos behind his back.

Jazz lets out an annoyed huff, and gave him a look that she had spent many years mastering, the flat ‘really?’ look that only an older sister could give. “Seriously? Half the town had their power knocked out by a ghost and you really expect me to think you’re not involved somehow? You really have to be more careful!”

“I know, I know, but the point is I caught the ghost. Besides no one got hurt…” He waves her off flippantly. “Badly.” He adds as an afterthought remembering his mother holding a towel to her head on the stairs. 

And there's also the fact that it must have been his new power that caused the blackout. But it's just a power outage, right? “It could have been a lot worse otherwise.”

Jazz sighs in exasperation. “Honestly, little brother. One of these days something will happen that you can’t take back, and you’ll be wishing you were more careful.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Be a better hero I get it. Jeez, you need some new material spazz.” Danny waves her off again as he pushes past her to escape her bossy and nosyness in the safety of his room. 

Jazz moves to follow him only to have Danny slam the door in her face. “Ugh! If I end up submitting this essay late I swear I will make you hear about it,” She moans out before stomping away. 

Danny rolls his eyes before flopping down onto the floor beside his bed. He needs to take care of the gashes still cutting through his side… 

He pulls out a towel, covered in dried blood and ectoplasm, spreading it flat out on the floor to catch any wayward macabre christmas that may be leaking out, and gets to work. 

With the retrieval of the Fenton fishing line from his personal first aid kit, he stuffs his pillow in his mouth and carefully threads each wound until stitched closed.

With them now sealed, a few bandages are wrapped around his waist to keep any further blood or ectoplasm from leaking out. Danny continues to breathe heavily for a moment taking his time to still his quivering. Stitches are always his least favorite part, and he still isn’t as sure handed as Sam, leaving his self care to be jagged at best.

He digs around in the kit until he finds his special ibuprofen, or rather, a custom made painkiller by Frostbite. It would take a bit to kick in but the offered relief would at least let him sleep, allowing him to heal faster. 

After battling that bird for ancients only know how long, he was exhausted, and sore. So when his ghost sense went off again signaling that there was a weak ghost nearby the teen simply groaned into his pillow and decided to let the Red Huntress take care of it. 

The ghost, while unfamiliar seemed to be a two at best. Maybe a three. Either way it was something he could declare isn’t his problem right now. 

It still doesn't stop him from worrying though, his obsession proading at him to go and investigate regardless of his human mind’s decision already being made. 

The ghost is close, that much is obvious, but as he lies there listening, and feeling out with his more ethereal senses, he can't seem to pinpoint that other ghost, and there are no screams of terror, so that's a bonus. Then it drops off, gone. With a relieved sigh he nestles down content to sleep, homework be damned. 

He could just blame it on the power outage, and besides it’s not as if the teachers actually expected him to do it anymore.

It takes a while for Amity Park to recover from the power outage. Days of work go into repairs on the transformers, leaving Danny anxious about how much damage his new power has already done.

As for the weak signal he sensed that night, it seems to have disappeared, or at least, he hadn't sensed it since. Nights are still as routine as ever, and his grades are still in the pits regarding school. 

It's just his standard nowadays. He was held back a year, it's his senior year now, and he's going nowhere fast. At this point, it isn’t his problem anymore. He wouldn't be able to keep a job with his erratic ghost hunting anyway.

It leads into the fight he's having now.

It's Skulker, as typical a night as ever as he soars past missiles and nets. It's already been a week since the power outage, and yet fights like this are so common that it hasn't felt like much time passed at all.

Danny warms up his hands, eager to put his training to the test and use his electric powers in combat. He's shocked himself at least five times since acquiring them, and has made sure to fine tune them as quickly as he can, to avoid any further frying of his nerves.

He dodges a blast from one of the guns built into Skulker's suit of armor, before letting the electricity arc across the night air and blast the mechanical ghost in the chest.

"You'll pay for that, ghost brat!" Skulker hisses, clutching his arm over his chest. Danny in turn sticks his tongue out at the furious hunter, taunting him.

"You wish! I'm only just beginning to make this battle more electrifying!" Danny chuckles. The electrical puns are a gold mine thus far, so he's planning on digging deep as he raises his charged hands in the air.

It's then that a blast hits Skulker from behind. The hunting ghost recoils, turning around with surprise. Danny drops his hands. He certainly didn't make that blast, did he?

There's no duplicates in the field, meaning a third party must have joined. Danny can't sense any other ghosts beside Skulker, meaning it must be a human hunter, looking to fight both of them. Again, typical night.

When a ghost wearing a cloak appears before the both of them, Danny can't help but be confused. He again lets his core sweep the area. Again, only Skulker is sensed in the area. Then how…?

"Well, I was aiming to skin the whelp tonight, but I can easily take two prizes with me to decorate my lair," Skulker growls at the newcomer, arming his missiles and aiming at them.

Danny quickly charges up his hands. He doesn't know this new ghost, but if they shot at Skulker, there's a chance they're on the same side. Danny aims the blast at the cannons before they can launch, busting them and short-circuiting the weapons.

"Hey, Metal Face! Your fight's with me!" Danny antagonizes Skulker, forcing the hunter to turn his attention back on the Halfa.

The cloaked figure pulls out an ecto-gun, the metal holding a black sheen and yellow details. They aim it at Skulker and fire again, the yellow ray striking him in the back.

"Don't use your hands, huh…" Danny mutters to himself as a note.

Skulker lets out a yell of anguish as his wings begin to make a sickly whirring and sputtering noise. “What?! You! What did you hit me with?” Skulker asks looking to the cloaked ghost fearfully. 

Danny frowns slightly as he can just barely make out the shadow of a smirk within the darkened hood of the ghost. “Not much of a talker either are you?” he quips out masking how unsettled he was with the other’s presence. 

They tilt their head and snort out in amusement. 

Skulker’s eyes dart between the pair angrily, before letting out a furious yowl and launching out a series of missiles that Danny had dubbed the ‘halfa seeking kind’ as they only ever locked onto him.

That didn’t seem to be the case in this instance however, as the missiles seemed to split, half launching towards Danny and the other half going towards the cloaked ghost. 

“Right, hope you’re flying is as good as your aim!” He calls out flying straight up, knowing it was best to lead them above the town before destroying them, less chance of shrapnel raining down on people.

The cloaked ghost didn’t seem to get that memo however as they launches a blast at the missles, obliterating them to dust. 

“Show off,” Danny grumbles as he fires his own blast higher up in the air, raining sparks and metal debris downward. As he turns to look back to where he’d last seen Skulker, he couldn’t seem to locate the ghost, actually either ghost.

Another puff of mist tells him Skulker was gone, for the time being. Heaven knows he'll be back tomorrow morning, if not later tonight. The hunter is nothing if not persistent.

As for the newcomer... They're certainly not your run of the mill ghost if those Halfa missiles went after them. And of course, he couldn't sense them in the first place.

Are they a Halfa? That must be why they're hiding their face, right? Not wanting to be recognised. Danny had that own fear the first few days of his own struggles. He really only inverts colors when he morphs.

But at the realization that no one would believe something to be alive and dead at the same time, he puts more time in keeping to the air rather than staying where people can see him. Just as a precaution. There's no need to cover his face and obscure his vision that way.

Though, he still has no idea who this other Halfa is, let alone what they're like. Does he know their human self? How did they become a Halfa in the first place, and how long have they been one?

A spark from his new electric powers causes him to hiccup. It reminds him all those transformers exploding from his first discharge.

And with that thought, a feeling of dread begins to knot his stomach. Did… did he cause that Halfa to become what they are? Had his shock done this? Did they know it was him?

...do they want revenge? Like Vlad toward his father? Would they blame him for their half death too?

The knot only gets tighter as he thinks of the implications. Who he might have hurt, how they're suffering with these new powers, how much they must hate him for this.

Suddenly, Danny doesn't feel so excited about his new powers…

With a wash of cold dread over his back and neck, that reminds him too much of his ghost sense, but with no mist, he tries to locate where the cloaked ghost could have gone. Maybe if he’s able to talk to them? Vlad went nuts and deteriorated from loneliness, right? So maybe…

He scans the roads and alleyways, and the skyline hoping to catch a flash of anything that might help tip him off to the other’s presence. “Come on… there!” He cheers loudly, straining his eyes into spotting the fleeting form. 

He tears off after them not wanting to lose his quarry “Hey! Hey! Wait up! Cloaked Half ghost person?!” 

Thankfully the cloaked ghost slows and hovers, still high above the city. Danny zooms over to them and halts in front of their darkened face squinting in an attempt to make out any features that may help to distinguish the other ghost.

Unfortunately, he has little success in making any identification on this new Halfa. They angle their head downward to evade his prying eyes.

“Hey, Um… Thanks for your help with Skulker earlier, I um… you're new? Er, no that’s awful. Look I know you're a halfa, and well, that’s good, and I just want to say if you need any help or anything with control maybe, I don’t mind lending a hand. I’m sure you know I’m Phantom, but can I at least get something to call you?” 

The cloaked ghost seems bemused by his rambling, most likely having never heard the ‘hero’ look so unsure of himself before. Though it seemed, in a show of faith perhaps the ghost tilts their head back slightly, enough to show their pale, lightly green tinted skin, as well as the row of sharp smirking teeth, with fangs that seemed to glint in the light. 

“Tasma,” they say simply, their voice a pitch on the higher side, more feminine sounding to Danny than if the halfa was male. 

Tasma then mysteriously begins fading, slowly and silently out of the visible light spectrum. 

Danny opens his mouth as if to say more but stops as he watches them fade. He's left alone in the dark streets of the city the night air blowing his wispy white hair as things grow silent. 

Only one question seems to stir in his head as he stares at the place the other once stood.

“Just who are you?”


	2. Something You Can't Take Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Ghostanimal for beta-ing for us!

It's been a few weeks since his encounter with an elusive new Halfa. Yet all that Danny knows is that her name is Tasma, and she's probably a woman.

He realises that he hasn't seen Tasma for a while. After the news released the information regarding the city wide power outage, she seemed to vanish. No matter where Danny would look, there was no sign of the other hybrid.

Of course, the public backlash from his latest blunder had been rough. Most people in the city are questioning if he's here to be a hero, again. He works for months on end to prove he's the good guy, and one screw up costs him so much progress.

His parents are back on the molecule by molecule rant, swearing to tear his alter ego to shreds and the like. Danny grew numb to the threats a while ago. That's just how his parents are, why fight It? It's not like they'll ever catch him. He's one step ahead at all times, so it's a breeze to evade whatever they have for him.

As for his real enemies? They're certainly milking it for all its worth. Vlad is still using his screw up with the hawk ghost to gather mistrust in Amity Park. The frootloop being mayor of the town certainly isn't doing him any favors. To top it off, the ghosts that follow Vlad were starting to go out of their way to cause extra destruction, in order to blame on him.

Danny stares at his star covered ceiling, pulling his elbow over his face with a grunt. He can feel his fangs scratching the inside of his lip as he tries to cool down from the stress around him. Schoolwork in the pits, endless ghost attacks, his reputation faltering…

His thoughts are interrupted by a sudden chill down his spine. A light blue, icy mist rolls past his lips, causing Danny to groan. How typical for another ghost attack to happen now? There's never a moment of peace, is there?

Getting to his feet, Danny shakes his head to get the hair out of his eyes. Ensuring the door is locked, he stuffs his bed full of pillows. It's to make them think that he's in said bed and asleep, in case his parents get into his room. After all, unless Pariah Dark himself is coming through the portal, or Vlad wants to deal with Danny personally, this shouldn't take too long.

"Well, I'm going ghost," he sighs. The rings of his transformation flicker into existence around his waist, ice blue like the mist that escaped him earlier. They split into two, morphing the supposedly human boy into that of a ghost, before he phases invisibly through the window and toward the latest attack.

"BOW DOWN BEFORE ME, HUMANS! I AM TECHNUS! MASTER OF ALL ELECTRONICS AND TECHNOLOGY!"

"Oh great, more yelling to add to my headache," Danny grumbles, hearing the tech-possessing ghost before he can even see the giant mech that has been assembled in the middle of the street. Tire tracks from the cars it's made from trace back to Amity Park Mall, of course.

Pinching his brow, Danny soars into the fray. The last time Technus attacked, he got in major trouble over all the expensive electronics he blew up. Could he really be blamed for that one? Technus used those things to attack the town, he had to stop him!

Still, being a hero of the people, he'll need a different approach to fix the thin ice he's standing on already. The solution is simple at a glance, take Technus out without destroying or collapsing the mech. 

Trouble is, it's hard to pull Technus out of any electrical amalgamation the ghost makes. With his obsession being that of technology itself, it's difficult for Danny to override even a wire in that suit with his own influence. But, in order to save the town and people's property, he's low in other choices.

With his parents actively hunting him again, he can't fly back to his house and get the Ghost Catcher. The lab might become a trap if they realise just how often he… borrows… from his parents. So, he needs to keep the use of Fenton tech out of the public eye. He spray painted his thermos black for a reason.

There's no time to build his own weapon to drag Technus out, and the ghost could probably add whatever he makes to the mech. So, that's strike two on the drawing board.

Leaving one other option. The manual way, casting his influence over the mech and dragging Technus out by taking the mech for himself. It would only leave him a small window to leap back out the moment Technus is no longer in control. And he may not be strong enough to back the mech from a ghost fulfilling their obsession.

"Ok, let's see if I can do this…" Danny turns intangible once more, charging straight at the mech. It's best he come from behind, to catch the tech ghost off guard enough for his opportunity.

Technus laughs, a cackling glee as he pulls more cars into his construct. People continue screaming while the mess of rearranged cars, computers, phones and other technology making up the mech moves through the town, their puppet master taking in the fear with a wide grin.

Danny phases through the back of the mech, the automated faces coating every screen on the massive robot getting a surprised and alarmed look. They fade to static as the mech freezes in place.

"GET OUT OF MY NEW BODY, GHOST CHILD! THIS IS MY DOMAIN! AS MASTER OF ALL TECHNOLOGY, YOU WILL NOT TEAR ME FROM MY CONSTRUCT!" Technus roars through the many speakers in the mech.

"Think again, sparky!" Danny growls as the amalgamation of electronics rattles, both ghosts fighting for control within it. Onlookers watch the mech shake and rattle, like it's alive and dealing with a killer belly ache.

Danny then gets an idea. He has electric powers now! He can't break anything in the mech, but a slight shock might be all he needs to win over the fight for control. 

Danny concentrates, only a small spark, only a slight jolt. The spark than moves along the wire spaghetti throughout the mech, just like he wanted. Technus screeches as the spark causes him to lose focus, expelling him from the construct.

Danny follows him right out, pulling out the thermos in a split second before Technus could take back over. The whirlwind of the thermos catches the ghost, who screams of revenge and comebacks before the lid is capped.

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Danny sighs as he attaches the thermos to his belt.

Suddenly, there's a rattling sound.

Danny turns back to the mech, the whole thing shaking as its lack of structural integrity begins to fail it. With no ghost controlling it, it bursts into every piece of tech that made it up.

"No, oh no, not again!" Danny cries, holding his hands out to stop the electronics from hitting the ground. Expecting to hear the sickening crunch of broken plastic and metal, he cringes as he shuts his eyes.

There is no sound of breaking metal.

Opening one eye, Danny sees his hands glowing with a white aura. The same aura surrounds every phone and remote, the electronics and vehicles suspended in the air.

With a heavy sigh of relief, Danny gently lowers the electronics back to earth. The sound of the bystanders cheering brings him a bit more pride. He beat Technus, and not a single wire out of place!

With all the debris and tech pieces safely on the ground, he turns to give a little wave to the people below. With his reputation on the rocks, Danny needs to regain any trust he can. The crowd seem to appreciate the gesture from the cheers at least. 

It was short lived however, as a loud whirring whine reaches his ears, barely giving him enough time to dodge out of the way from the upcoming blast. “Making a mess again, Ghost?” Valerie's slightly modulated voice rang out as she flies forward.

“Hey I cleaned some of it!” Danny complains weaving around a few more strings of blaster fire. “Besides, you’re making it hard to really do anything here!” 

“As if you would! You almost crushed a bus!” She hisses out gesturing with her blaster to where a car was dropped in front of the bus. “You do nothing but destroy everything you touch! That’s why you need to be destroyed!” 

Danny winces seeing the mangled metal. Of course even when things go right they go wrong! An electrified bola flies at him catching his foot in a from a delayed dodge. He lets out a yelp of pain as his muscles seize and tense. With wobbled flight he takes a clip on his shoulder as he untangles himself from the anchor on his leg before beginning to fly upwards. 

Thankfully it seems with his development of electrical powers the shock wasn’t nearly as bad as it should have been, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting. 

Valerie kept on his tail as he climbed. Normally she would have stalled out by now, but her suit, much like her determination, just keeps going.

“New upgrades huh?” Danny calls down to her as he loops back around sending a light blast of his own hoping to hit her blaster. She dodges easily and the two enter a neon dogfight. 

The looping and spinning did little to disorient the girl as she tracked his movements. Finally, he landed a shot to her hand making her drop her third blaster. She stills in frustration. “Why you…” She began, growl deep in her throat. 

“I don’t know why you can’t just leave me alone. We do this dance almost every day, and it always ends the same. Stop wasting your time.” He flashes her a smug smile, only to yelp a moment later as he takes a firm blast into the back. 

Valerie tenses, eyeing the new combattant who just entered the fray with equal parts suspicion and interest. 

“You!?” Danny exclaims, spotting Tasma. The blaster in her hand still smoking from its use. 

“Me.” she responds simply, tilting her head back slightly allowing her bright golden eyes to show. A menacing, smug smile adorns her lips.

“Friend of yours, Phantom?” Val sneers out, smoothly fixing her wrist blaster to the new ghost. 

“Maybe?” Phantom tries hopefully sending a glance to Tasma. 

“No.” Tasma hisses before firing out a large blast. Her hand glows the same gold as her eyes. The energy emitting from her aura seems to charge her gun as the shot launches forward. 

Val flies back while Phantom went up. With a flick of her wrist the ecto-shot contorts in mid air before exploding out like a buck shot and peppering the young halfa’s lower half. “Disgraceful” She huffs out glaring at the teen. 

Val uses her wrist ray to try to get a shot onto this new threat, only to have Tasma fluidly dodge out of the way, barely sparing the girl a glance.

“Not much of a talker are ya?” Danny tries, ignoring the sting in his lower extremities. “Look I’m sure if we try to talk about whatever this is about, we can be friends?” Twin glares are shot his way. “Okay maybe not friends but how ‘bout not as trigger happy?“

Instead of responding Tasma turns her golden gaze to the Red Huntress sizing her up. “I have no qualms with humans.” she states. 

“Yea? Well-” 

“I do however have issue with the one who more or less killed me from an explosion that happened a few days ago.” She bit out, venom dripping from her tone, and cutting off Valerie's scathing remarks towards ghosts. “So you stay out of my way I’ll stay out of yours. Then we can each go on our merry way.”

Danny winces hearing that. It was his actions that did this to her? That turned her into a Halfa? Had his carelessness killed someone? Danny feels his chest begin to ache at the thought.

No, no he isn't a killer, right? He's supposed to protect. He's supposed to be the guardian, the hero. He's supposed to help people, not burden them with his curse!

But now, staring at the seething, angry soul before him, Danny knows that he's done something unforgivable. He's hurt someone beyond repair, and now they're out to get him back for it.

“I think I liked it better when you didn’t say much…” Phantom complains, as he watches the two trigger happy females decide whether or not to gang up against him.

“And why should I? As soon as I turn my back to ghost it leaves me open to be stabbed.” 

“As I said, I have no qualms with humans, least of all you. After all, I'm still at least half human, and know the importance of protecting this town.” Tasma says with a knowing glance to Phantom.

“Half…?” That admission makes Val falter. “You're a half ghost!” She exclaims. Danny can see the look in her eyes, mimicking that of the day they rescued Dani, and she learned about the existence of halfas in the first place.

Valerie swore never to harm humans, even half humans. She knows Tasma is one, but she doesn't know about Danny.

Instantly the huntress trains her gun to the remaining opponent, Danny, who can't help but groan.

Tasma tilts her head again before snapping her fierce glowing glare back to Danny herself. Red and gold blaster ends trained to his chest. “Oh come on…” he grumbles as the blasts fire in unison. 

With that the aerial dogfight begins anew. 

Tasma’s blasts were a little weaker than Valerie's, but Tasma holds more control over her aim, as if she'd trained for much longer. Valerie, while stronger, is less nimble than Tasma. But one shouldn't discount her own deadly accuracy. She reads the movements of the other halfa with ease.

It wasn’t until another shot clipped his back did he realize something; they hold a similar fighting stance. 

“Great, new half ghost with a vendetta against me is a trained fighter…” Danny mutters under his breath, pinching his brow.

Together, the two of them shoot at him with precision, and attack him at every angle. Danny would twist out of the way of one blast, only to get pelted by the next. Every hit scorched his skin and stung.

It becomes very clear that this is a battle he couldn't win. It's two on one, the odds are turned against him, and both his opponents are at least part human. He can rest easy that neither Valerie or Tasma will harm any civilians, at least. But with his own life in danger now, he can't stick around and let himself be killed.

The next hot blast burns at his ear. It had just barely been nicked by the plasma, the shooter barely missing his head. It's time to turn tail.

With all the power he could muster, he pulls it into his ability to manipulate his own gravity. The resulting change in tactics causes him to shoot off like a rocket. The streak of shadow in the sky blasts through town, looking for a place to hide.

Once he returns to human form, his ecto signature will be near impossible to trace. But first, he needs an alley or abandoned building of some kind to morph safely. The last thing he wants is to have both halves of him known to the enemy, and being hunted twenty four hours a day does not sound fun.

Looking back, Tasma is hot on his tail. It seems Valerie was unable to keep up with the spectral speed chase, or her suit gave out a ways back.

Still, that leaves the issue of Tasma, and Danny being unable to shake her. The gun she's holding is pointed directly at the back of his head, a snarl visible under the shadowy hood. He's dead if he can't lose her. All he needs is three seconds away from her field of view.

With that thought in mind, Danny takes a sharp dive. Tangibility fades from him as he phases through the ground, hoping to find some place to buy those crucial seconds.

With his breath heavy in his ear, Danny finds himself phasing into Amity Park's sewer system. Gross, but it'll have to do. Danny throws himself into the artificial stream of water, holding his breath as the murky water hides him.

Just three seconds.

One. The rings appear at his waist.

Two. The rings split.

Three.

"Where are you, coward!?" Tasma's furious voice echoes through the empty sewers, the sound bouncing off the walls. The sound of water rushing through cement follows.

Then, the sudden gasp for air. Perfectly normal, completely human Danny Fenton emerges from the stream, swimming onto land. His sweater is stained from the unsanitary water as he coughs and sputters, crawling onto the walkway.

Tasma's bright yellow eyes look to the figure crawling onto shore. Raven black hair wet and splayed across his face, blue eyes filled with fear.

Danny can't help but think himself stupid for surfacing so soon. He's the only one down here, of course Tasma is going to recognise him in human form! Stupid, Fenton, stupid!

But, instead of raising the gun to aim at him again, Tasma lands beside him on the walkway. She grabs the back of his sweater to help him to his feet, before taking two steps back. Danny can't help the miffed expression on his face as the glowing eyes before him soften.

"What on earth is a child like you doing down here? And you seem terribly hurt too," she sighs, the malice in her echoing voice gone.

Does...

Does she really not recognise him? Danny could have sworn it would be obvious! But, it might be a blessing in disguise. If she doesn't know that he's Phantom, only in human form, he might have a chance.

"Sorry. Uh… I was walking home. A bully pushed me down here after beating me up," Danny lies smoothly, one of his most classic excuses.

Tasma's white gloves brush the hair out of his eyes. "Well, you should inform your parents about this, or the police. This seems like this is out of hand for bullying."

"No, it was an accident really. Rough housing I just tripped…"

She seems uncertain about that, but Danny's resolve makes her relent. "You should take a shower when you get home. Do you need help getting back above ground?"

"N-no, it's fine. I can handle it. There's a ladder not far from here, I'm sure," Danny quickly tells her.

"If you insist," Tasma sighs. "By the way. You didn't happen to see Phantom go by just now, did you?"

"Phantom? That old menace again? Uh yeah! He went down that way…. Said something about running away to Wisconsin?" He chuckles nervously. Please buy it, please buy it!

"Thank you. You get home safe now, I have a murderer and a menace to catch," Tasma hisses with resolve. She then disappears down the direction Danny pointed in, leaving the boy to sigh with relief.

"Ugh… it smells awful down here. I don't think even my intangibility is gonna get the smell out..." Danny grumbles under his breath as he heads for a ladder

As he opens the manhole, Danny sees Valerie finally catch up to where he and Tasma were. Her board is smoking from pushing too hard to catch up, but she otherwise seems safe.

Danny watches her look around for any trace of his alter ego, or the new Halfa. With a growl, she rockets off with her board puttering behind her.

The screen before Vlad Masters fades out as he watches the recording taken by Valerie's suit again. He strokes the back of his white persian with interest, the cat purring underneath his hand.

He finally turns the video off, using his free hand to save the file. With a smirk, he labels a new folder with the name of this, interesting new player, and closes the screen.

"My my… isn't this interesting?"


	3. Cutting Deeper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, big thanks to Ghostanimal, our lovely beta!

After the unfortunate (and disgusting) fiasco in the sewer, Danny can only sit in his room and think. Just, think. About Tasma, what she had said in their confrontation, what he had done to her.

It's a lot. Comprehending that he might have killed someone, when he was supposed to be the good guy, the hero. People who kill others are bad, evil, unforgivable. Does his actions make him evil? It was an accident, right? But that doesn't change the outcome.

Someone in this town is suffering because of him. Because of his actions, someone still has the pain of death fresh in their mind, that someone is dealing with inhuman abilities they can't control, and that someone is out for him personally to get their revenge.

Can he really blame them for hating him? He's the cause, the instigator. They're the victim, the one cursed to exist between life and death with their almost murderer. 

The overwhelming guilt keeps Danny locked in his room most hours of the day. He really only leaves to ghost hunt, and his usual heart, flare and personality when fighting are completely gone when he is outside. 

He's easily irritated when people ask what's wrong. Like they'd understand. No one can understand, the grief or the pain that comes with nearly taking someone's life. 

The truth is a rock in his chest, heavy and holding him down. It's his fault, all his fault, someone has to endure the hell that is becoming a Halfa. And he can't bring himself to find out who, either. 

The rock sinks deeper in his chest at the thought of looking at someone he might know, or a total stranger, hurt and scared, struggling with powers beyond control, dealing with something they shouldn't have to.

Ignorance is bliss, as they say. And he'd rather remain ignorant of whatever human those enraged yellow eyes hide. It will be easier simply not to look for who that person is behind the spectral glow.

Still though, he can't seem to get the other ghost out of his head.

His thoughts drift in hazy circles until his belly rumbles, demanding attention. With a quick glance to gauge the time, Danny decides a snack could be good before dinner. 

The teen peels himself from his mattress with a grunt. 

As he heads for the door he catches a glance of himself in the mirror. Hair askew, large bags present under his eyes, well, larger than normal, and a large reddened spot on his forehead from where he had been resting his arm unmoving for hours. 

He sighs at his visage idly wondering if Tasma looked about the same as she struggles to get her core to still under her own commands.

Would she fall through floors of an office building in a bout of unintended intangibility while trying to get to her office or cubicle? What if she accidentally causes a car accident because she turned her vehicle invisible while stopped at a red light? She'd probably feel awful, and that too, that theoretical crash would be his fault…

He shakes his head and presses onward out into the hall. He tries to force himself to focus at the task at hand and not let his mind wander. He makes his way to the kitchen and gives a quick wave to his mother as she works away at dinner, before moving to the fridge and opening it, and staring in it to further contemplate his place in the universe.

And grab an apple… and maybe a cheese wedge…

His mother snorts at him seeing him shove the small bit of cheddar in his gob. "Really, you can't wait for dinner?" She comments, giving him a side eye from her chopping up and mangling of various veggies for her stew. 

"'M hungry," Danny responded simply around his cheese chunk, before swallowing and moving onto the apple.

"Clearly," his mother responds dryly, turning back to her prepping. 

"You um, need any help?" Danny asks after he gulps down his apple, turning to toss the core into the compost.

"Sure hun, that would be lovely, thank you." Maddie turns to smile at him before pulling out a second cutting board. "If you could peel and chop potatoes that would be wonderful."

"Sure thing, Mum."

Maddie ruffles his hair affectionately ignoring his swatting hands. Danny huffs and turns to pull the peeler from the drawer, only to flinch and almost jump into a battle ready pose when the sound of glass breaking comes from behind him.

Danny blinked as he scanned the kitchen eyeing the tall glass of iced water his mother had spilled. The ice cubes mingle with the shattered glass, cold liquid all over the floor. Maddie lets out a hiss of pain calling his concerned gaze from the floor to the mother herself.

"Well, there goes my drink," she mutters through the hiss of pain.

Maddie begins wrapping a paper towel around her hand. A shard of glass ended up cutting her, judging by the blood beginning to seek through the napkin.

"Mom! Are you okay?" Danny exclaimed, instincts instantly kicking in seeing his mother hurt.

She pulls her hand back, hiding the gash from sight as well as the quickly filling paper towel. "I'm alright, just a nick from the glass I'd knocked. I thought I caught it but it just smashed on the countertop… um, Danny can you just finish up here I need to get the first aid kit." She said smoothly. 

Danny didn't even have time to respond as she bolted from his sights down to the lab to fix herself up. With a worried frown, he catches sight of a drop of blood on the ground. It was painfully obvious that cut was deeper than she wanted to let on, and she might even need stitches.

Danny turns to grab a clean paper towel to wipe up the small splattering of blood on the floor. "Huh?" He paused white napkin hovering over the speckles. He stared at the spots. "Green? Is that ectoplasm?" 

Looking at his own hand, it seems he should have been more careful with the shattered glass himself. Little cuts cover his own hand now, but they seem to fade as soon as they appear. He's been hurt worse, so he must not have noticed.

He runs the towel over the stains and examines the rest of the blotches. He lets out a small chuckle as he notices the ecto stains under the blood. Why is he not surprised? 

The house is coated with ectoplasm stains everywhere, it always has been. For a second there he could have sworn he saw something eerily familiar about the splatter. 

Then, he remembers his own cuts are a factor too. His own blood and ectoplasm mixing with the already present stains, nothing more. He tosses the paper towel in the trash with a sigh before washing his hands and getting to work on finishing dinner. 

Maddie returns about twenty minutes later, just as Danny had finished the food preparation, with a wad of gauze around her hand. At Danny's scrutinizing look she smiles and waves her hand dismissively.

"It was a bit deeper than I had thought but nothing too major," Maddie offers. 

"You sure? It looked like a lot of blood, you even dripped on the floor," Danny says moving to try to take her hand into his.

She flinches away from his touch and holds her bandaged hand to her chest. "It's fine hun, really. Since when are you such a mother hen?" She teases.

"I'm just worried," he rebukes quickly. After all, something has been off with her since his screw up.

"No need. I am far more capable of looking after myself and these things then you are," Maddie lightly chuckles, pulling her hand away from her son's prying eyes.

Though it was probably meant as a light joke the words cut deep, and Danny's shoulders droop. Seeing the thick bandaging around her wrist only serves as a reminder of his own wounds. Thick gauze wrapped around an arm, leg, or torso, a modified fishing line being the only thing actually holding him together.

He blinks a moment, snapping himself out of it. His mother doesn't have ectoplasm in her blood. He's just seen himself covered in so many bloody injuries that a cut from a broken glass is getting to him.

It's very frequent that the cuts are deeper than he expects. Has there been a night he hasn't come home badly beaten, injured, bleeding, broken? Has he ever been right since the accident?

Will anyone bearing this curse ever be right? This curse of life and death itself, that he foolishly inflicted on his own body, and then that of an unsuspecting innocent. The cuts are always deeper than he expects.

"Danny? Are you alright sweetheart?" Maddie's concern takes him from the spiral in his mind. Danny's head snaps up to her indigo eyes, the same eyes that had been with him since day one.

His mother has it lucky, being able to ghost hunt without having an existential crisis every three seconds.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just zoned out there for a minute," he hastily elaborates, shaking himself out. He's been zoned out ever since he learned what his screw up did, honestly.

A chill runs up his spine in that moment, and Danny has to suppress groaning in front of his mother as the mist leaks into the air, passed his nose and toward the ceiling.

"I'm gonna head to the bathroom and splash some water on my face," he excuses, rushing up the stairs to said bathroom. He quickly shuts and locks the door before he can hear his mother answer.

Ensuring the space was clear, Danny pulls his core forth and lets the cold rings wash over his slender frame. Sneakers once again become thick boots, stretchy latex fabric mixed with reinforced with rubber and ectoplasm. Back to the grind again.

Soaring invisibly into his room and out the window, Danny follows three distinct traces toward city hall. With the typical screaming, it was clear the ghosts are already causing confusion and panic.

Danny soars into the fray, using a bout of icy wind to blow back the offending specters. "Aviary, senior, oh of course it's these birdbrains again."

Vlad's vultures, three of the older Halfa's cronies. Probably acting on the cheese-head's orders again, if past experience is anything to go by. And, by extension, the aforementioned selfish Halfa is up to no good.

"Well, what's Plasmius ordering you to do this time?" Danny hisses, folding his arms over his chest and scowling at the ghostly vultures. In turn the birds quickly begin circling him.

"We're here to make you look bad. Special orders in preparation for Plasmius and his supposed special guest, yadda yadda," the lead vulture grunts sarcastically. "I don't really care what you hybrid types get up to, I just do what I'm told."

With that, the vultures dive at Danny, who easily moves out of the way of the flying beaks. "Hey, feather-brains! You missed me!" He adopts a confident smirk in turn, though it looks rather forced.

Although instead of crashing, the vultures miss each other and soar like small, green missiles in whatever direction they dedicated themselves to, crashing into streets and buildings and causing a huge mess.

The birds obnoxious laughter gives him a clue as to which direction to head, though it becomes quickly obvious the birdbrains have split up. 

A flash of green to the left causes him to act on instinct and launch forward sending off a few good blasts. It hits target and effectively clips the vulture's wings causing it to spin and fall towards the earth.

In a flash the thermos was at the ready and the first vulture was trapped within. "One down," he muttered spinning over and taking off towards the next closest. 

Danny glared venomously as the pest phased through the outermost wall of the office building. He gives chase phasing in as well only to immediately crash into several cubicle walls knocking them over.

He rubs his nose in dismay blinking down at them while the bird laughs away cynically, head poking out from the ceiling. "The boss had this here building had it outfitted with phase proof furniture. You like?" The bird taunts knowingly before retreating upwards.

Danny once again gave chase, launching to the ceiling smashing through two desks and demolishing a string of computers before he had the thought to stop and feel put where the ghost had gone. 

With a mix of frustration and determination, he shoots off outside the building circling around it to the roof. 

"Oy! That wasn't supposed to happen. He wanted more than that!" The vulture squawks seeing Danny heading up the building's side, and taking flight skyward. "You're getting better sonny, but not good enough!" The bird flops over before dive bombing at the halfa.

Danny being close as he was to the bird didn't have time to dodge. The vulture's beak gouging a long tear from his shoulder to his hip. The bird let out a smug cry of victory only to shriek in pain as Danny froze it's upper body and left wing. 

The bird flapped its free wing wildly, causing him to spin downward in wild circles before smashing into a power line snapping it and zapping himself before the circuit overloaded and the power went dead. 

Danny's arms shake with the thermos open and pointed, at the sight of the bird in the wires. No! Not again! As the vulture shrieks in pain, Danny is reminded of the hawk, the power surge, and again, what his failure had done to Tasma.

"See this, Amity Park?" Danny can hear Vlad sneering from the ground below. "Again, Phantom has caused needless destruction to properties all over Amity Park. Destroyed homes, expensive repair costs, and his little ghost cronies fear mongering to make him look better!"

"What? No, we are not allies! I'm trying to stop them!" Danny's voice cracks as he tries to counter Vlad's argument.

"Really now? Because the way I see it, you've destroyed even more than they have, flying around this town 'chasing' them," Vlad grins.

"What- but that's- I-I," Danny stutters. His previous grief on the subject of Tasma causing his focus to waver.

Looking around, he sees what Vlad said was true, everything was coming down on him at once. The rock in his chest beginning to crush his will.

People who gathered to watch the fight start to mutter, hushed whispers consuming the crowd. This only furthers Danny's growing anxiety. What are they saying about him? What do they think of him, after he continues to cause failure after failure?

"Amity Park is ill fitted for the antics of a teenage ghost, running amok as he pleases and pretending to be a hero. This town needs a real guardian, a proper one. And with that, I give the spotlight to our new, trained and capable protector!" Vlad announces, stepping aside.

Behind him, of course, is Tasma. Her gold ecto-gun whirs as she aims at Phantom, hatred in her searing yellow eyes. Danny swerves to evade the blast, but it knocks his thermos, releasing all his catches this week into the air.

Tasma only glares harder as the ghosts close in, encircling the both of them.

Vlad proceeds to turn his back on the ensuing fight, chuckling to himself. Taking proud steps toward city hall, he relishes in the screams, the jeers, and the sounds of weapons firing behind him.

He takes a seat in the luxurious leather chair in his office, turning it to face the window. The white Persian cat he calls his own leaps onto his lap, allowing her master to stroke her.

Behind him, the vultures phase into the room.

"Did we do good, boss?" One of the vultures asks.

"You three did excellent, and the meeting with Tasma couldn't have gone better. She agreed to my plot wholeheartedly, just as naive as any new Halfa. With her on my side, Daniel will be in my grasp, and the rest of his pathetic family will fall into place," Vlad grins widely. "Why don't you three join in with the festivities? There's a lot of town around to make young Daniel look worse, at your pleasure of course. Think of it as your reward."

The vulture's breaks lifted into grins and they nodded gratefully before taking off. Vlad stood, poised at his large window overlooking the town grinning madly and giving a light chuckle as his birds were almost immediately shot down by a yellow blast, and caught. 

The man's eyes roam, catching Daniel's as he twists and uses his unbecoming ability to make a gap in his chest to avoid Tasma's gun. Vlad gives a 'friendly' wave to the teen, enjoying his sullen look as his attention snaps back to Tasma.

"Tasma," he cooed. A new knight in play, she was intelligent but gullible, focused but too tunneled, deadly but too kind hearted. Though, unlike Valerie, she would remain loyal to his demands. He already has a judge of her character, based on their enlightening discussion.

Tasma is much more cold in her rage than Valerie. That makes her easier to control than the spitfire of his old employee. Valerie hadn't even realised he can still take control of that suit, if necessary.

On the other hand, Tasma is a Halfa. He can't control her at a whim, but as long as he gets in her head, there's nothing she can do to stop him. Vlad could play with her all he liked, and she wouldn't have a say, lest her nature become public.

He pulls the curtains closed and moves to his computer. He had research to do, a human half to weasel out, and a press release to write.

The sound of Daniel screaming as he's hit with Tasma's blasts is music to his ears. And soon, his inferior heroics will be snuffed out. One way or another.

……..

Danny collapsed face first into the bed with a pitiful groan. His floor still holding remnants of his most recent blunder in the form of ruined towels and an emptied tube of topical numbing burn gel. 

Tasma really was a hell of a shot…

He sighs into his pillow again. He had hardly been able to get any hits in, let alone dodge half the time. She was toying with him, testing him, figuring out his style. It became obvious rather quickly that she was getting a feel for his moves as within a few minutes, she seemed to have a counter for almost everything he'd tried.

And of course, Vlad gave her a thermos. Well more of a travel mug with the sleek and more slender design. Point was he was just barely able to avoid the beam for today…

If he had been captured, who knows what would happen? Tasma and Plasmius, working in tandem to destroy him. Is Tasma only working for Vlad to get back at Danny, their common enemy? Do they know each other's human identities? Could they be blackmailing each other, just like his own agreement with the cheesehead?

He bites back a groan. That's just perfect isn't it? Can there be one halfa that stays in Amity that isn't out for his blood?

If it wasn't for these damn electrical powers, none of this would be happening! His reputation is in the pits, he's nearly killed someone, made them bear his curse, and now his life is in more danger than ever!

Maybe it's for the best he never uses the electrics ever again. All they do is more harm than good. All they do is hurt. The sparks rearing up in his mind as he remembers the pain. The pain of being electrocuted, the grief of being the live wire that zapped someone else. Electrical powers can go to hell.

Danny rolls over to stare up at the glow in the dark stars that still hung tight to his ceiling. Tasma had made it clear today that she was his enemy. That she wanted to take him down.

The battle is a blur in his hazy, pain filled mind, but her words are still clear as day. She'll take him down to prevent him from hurting anyone else. To prevent them from being hurt like her.

Danny rolls over again, wincing as the burns flare in pain once more, groaning. She's right to want revenge on him. He's done something horrible, irredeemable to her, and he can't take it back.

But with Tasma working for Vlad, she might be in more danger than she realizes. Vlad has to be manipulating Tasma, like he had with Valerie so long ago.

Of course he wants a new lacky, considering Valerie quit being in his services after the Danielle Incident. Danny never really figured out what made her so cross with Vlad's human persona, seeing as she was praising the scumbag mid fight.

Still, Valerie had up and quit out of nowhere one day, and it's more than obvious that Tasma is taking her place as "Mayor's Most Useful Pawn." And if nothing else, it'll mean more trouble for him and his family.

Tasma is powerful, agile and strategic. Danny barely kept up with her during the fight. No wonder Vlad wants to use her power to achieve his goals. Tasma is one of, if not the most powerful ghost he's faced in recent history.

She really is a force to be reckoned with. And if she does end up destroying him, it could put everyone he knows and loves in serious danger.


	4. Scarred and Burned

A hot blast of ecto energy just barely misses Danny's head as he flies through the streets, gripping the thermos. He practically feels Valerie's glare burning into the back of his head.

Another standard hunt turned fight for his life because Tasma can't be far behind if the Red Huntress is already here. The two have been relentless since Tasma teamed up with Vlad, chasing him down every time he shows his face in spectral form.

It doesn't help that he's been unable to hunt smaller ghosts in recent times. It's just not worth it with Tasma and Valerie prowling the streets when they can easily catch the smaller spooks themselves.

But Danny just can't leave innocent humans out to be hurt when the larger, stronger ghosts come looking for him. Valerie could get injured, Tasma could be hurt by one of his enemies…

The regret and guilt are making it difficult to clear his head in the stressful situation. Another blast from Valerie's wrist ray nicks his ear, causing him to hiss in pain. She really is a good shot.

And just as expected, as he rounds a corner, Tasma is there to head him off. Danny can see the sharp grin under her hood as she fires her ecto pistol right as he gets around the corner. He yelps, turning intangible as the ray soars through him.

It hits a nearby lamppost, knocking it over. The crash causes Danny and his pursuers to stop and wince.

"And you guys say I cause all the property damage, huh?" He growls at the two of them.

"That blast was meant for you, not the street lamp," Tasma huffs in turn, raising the pistol again.

"Well, you still broke it. I hope your human half is paying for the repairs," Danny glares in turn, getting ready to move.

"I'll have you know I already make a generous donation to the Ghost Repair Fund," she snaps and begins back readying another blast. "What have you done? I know Phantom doesn't help with clean up, but what about your other half?"

She fires her golden blast at Danny's torso once again. Danny's guilt and swirl of emotions make him late to react, and the blast catches his thigh.

He yelps in pain as green pools thickly along his leg, dripping down and around his knee. As he turned his legs into a tail and pitched upwards to avoid Valerie from behind, the green spiralled down like a reverse candy cane.

Danny risks a glance behind him as he flies, wincing as he catches Tasma wiping her cheek of his splattering of blood. Her golden eyes flare as she speeds up, looking like a jet with the dark clothing she wears. 

Danny hears the shots ring out and with instincts guiding him, he twists and contorts his body, even making his form pull away forcing a hole in his mid-section for a blast to sail through. His small relief is cut short as Tasma waves her glowing hand to bring her ecto-shots back around.

Danny makes a squawking noise as he twists again and again around the same two blasts of Tasma's and the new ones Valerie throws his way. "Two on one's hardly fair!" He panted out.

"All's fair in war ghost!" Valerie spits out as her blast clips his shoulder.

"What? No love?" He quips.

"Not for you!" Came the reply by Tasma who'd managed to slam the butt of her blaster into the side of his head.

Danny sees stars and his flight wavers a bit, before dropping out completely.

"Nice. Can you teach me that?" Valerie's voice sounded warbled as Danny's world pitched.

"Of course, sweetie," Tasma coos, as he begins to nose dive, losing complete control of his flight.

Danny misses Valerie's reply as he plummets. He is barely able to pour on some air brakes and exert his invisibility and intangibility. It takes a lot of effort to make a sharp turn, crashes through the scattered boxes and wooden skids in the nearby alleyway. While the probable concussion was making it hard to concentrate, he still had enough wherewithal to find a spot between the skids and boxes to hide and suppress his core.

At least like this they can't read his signature on any technology, and he can leap back into action instantaneously. He'll find a safer place to actually morph later, the display would be much too flashy, invisible or no.

It was just in time too as the pair of huntresses flew down and began scanning for any sign of him. Danny holds his breath as Valerie walks right by his hiding spot, sending a silent thank you to Clockwork, or whichever ancient is watching out for him in that particular moment. 

“He’s gone from the sensor,” Valerie announces to her sort of partner.

Tasma gave out a non committal hum before giving an answer. “That’s too bad. I almost caught him that time…” 

“What do you mean ‘caught him?’ Aren’t you trying to end him too?” Valerie asks.

“Not exactly. I’ve been working with Mayor Masters to take him down,” Tasma admits. “He’s been quite beneficial in keeping my appearance up, plus that sorry excuse for a ghost needs to be removed from his position. He’s an embarrassment, and whatever Vlad wishes to do with him once I hand him over is fine by me. Especially after he did this to me,” she spats, gesturing to herself vaguely.

Danny feels a new flood of guilt at that. It's his fault she's after him… And deep down he knows whatever punishment or revenge she wants to dole out onto him for killing her, he knows he deserved it. Even still, where Vlad was involved it was cause for more worry than normal. 

“Vlad? No. you can’t be working with him! That man.. That man is really bad news! You need to drop him.” Valerie says, her hands clenching into fists as her tone darkens. 

“Regardless of his motives, I have my own ends to meet, and if he can help accomplish that so be it.” she spits back glowing eyes narrowing.

Valerie was silent a moment before she shakes her head. “Whatever it is, he’ll double cross you, you know that right?” 

“That may be so, but it doesn’t change a thing. My ends and his overlap for a time, and even after, they do not turn abrasive to each other, so I have little worry.” Her eyes lessen in their intensity but still continue to stare past the Red Huntress’s helmet as though to make out the girl within. “Besides, weren’t you working for him until recently? Then you should know it’s better to have him as an ally than an enemy.” 

Valerie started to retort, a low growl bubbling from her throat only to be cut off by Tasma’s knowing smirk. “It’s amazing what information one can pull when looking into Phantom through Vlad’s computers,” she chides. "Even if most of the info is distorted and broken... I'll take what i can get."

Valerie seems to glare through her helmet to the ghost. “He’ll stab you in the back, manipulate you, and twist the truth to get to his own ends, whatever that may be that day.” She grumbles, weight shifting as she switches to a more defensive stance. 

“You hunt Phantom too. The whole reason you’re even able to do so is because of ‘Vlad’s gifts’ to you.” Tasma says, straining her voice against Vlad’s name a bit. “The only difference is I offered to hand him to Vlad after I'm done with him. So what do you care once he’s gone?” 

Danny makes a face. There was something more here but-

“What does that have to do with anything? I’m trying to destroy Phantom of my own accord! I don’t care about him, if that’s what you're implying, but what I do know is that whatever Masters wants with him isn’t good. I may hate Phantom, but I hate the idea of Masters getting more power even more,” Valerie growls at the smug ghost before her. 

Tasma looks to be dangling something over Valerie's head, that seemed obvious to the elder woman. It was clear she wasn't telling the whole truth, something classified between her and Vlad, maybe? Danny can't think to comprehend what their talk was about, and Valerie must be in the dark as well.

“Think Red, then come back to me without your suit on, and perhaps we’ll talk properly,” Tasma commands lifting off the ground a bit, getting ready to take her leave. “Wouldn’t want to have any unwanted ears about after all,” She says, tilting her head up a bit to show her too sharp grin beneath the shadows. 

Danny swears her eyes flash to his direction in that moment, though that might be paranoia, or the concussion… or the fact he’s still holding his breath for what's been quite a long time now while the huntresses speak to one another… a combination of all three, most likely. Tonight is not going to be fun.

Perhaps it's best he retreat now, re-emerge as his human self, that he knows at least Valerie won't attack him. Tasma he can't be completely sure about, but he's betting on the fact Valerie wouldn't let Tasma hurt Danny Fenton.

Regardless of what happened the first time Valerie and Tasma tag teamed him, the other Halfa is unpredictable. Tasma may have not recognised him in that sewer, but here he doesn't want to press the very little luck he had that day.

As long as he can phase through to the next alleyway over, he'd have a safe spot to transform. His signature will disappear almost completely, and he can again deal with any bruises, cuts or burns gained today. He'd be safe from the wrath of two angry hunters another day.

He watches Valerie fly off on her hoverboard as his thoughts begin swimming and clouding his mind. He almost forgot what he was going to do, until Tasma's golden gaze looks through the alleyway.

Hearing the other halfa's feet hit the ground, Danny phases through the building. He sees a bright yellow light through the dusty window, but his heart tells him not to look. He knew he couldn't bear seeing the face of the woman he hurt that day. Mind your own morphing, Danny.

A bit of wayward flying and phasing later, and Danny's found himself a quiet alley to morph back to his human form behind. He's just so tired, head pounding and his injuries stinging under his jumpsuit as he leans against the wall. He just wants to breathe, to rest.

He lets the rings appear at his waist, too tired to even bother fully checking for anyone watching. His hair returns to raven black and his eyes it's naturally dull blue. 

Now finally in physical form, Danny decides to assess the damage to his leg first, painfully rolling up the denim jeans to check the severity of the burns.

"Fenton, what the f-"

"Valerie!?"

He really needs to pay more attention to where he morphs. Because of course, the last of Valerie's hunting suit is vanishing into thin air while they stare each other down in the same alleyway.

Danny can see her face twist into a snarl, her fists shaking as she looks him up and down with disbelief and bewilderment. She's very clearly pissed at him for what he just did, what he's done over the past four years.

With how both their careers are, Danny is surprised this particular scenario hasn't happened before. Is he really that out of it? Transforming in the same alley as Valerie, he's losing his touch.

"Look, Val, I know what you're gonna say, but-" Danny starts, but Valerie is quick to shut him up. Her glare pierces his eyes, and he can just see and feel the betrayal and sadness in her eyes.

"You bastard! I thought you were my friend, and now this shit?! You were phantom the whole goddamn time and you tricked me! You tricked me like everyone else in this god forsaken world!"

"Look, Val, it's, I-"

"Don't call me that, you son of a bitch! You don't have the right to call me that after this! After everything! You're just like him, a dirty, manipulative liar!"

Danny can see how sad she is behind that raw fury. He takes a few shaky breaths and tries to stand, feeling more guilt and shame overtake him as he stumbles.

"I'm sorry, I'll just go-"

Valerie reactivates her suit, pulling something something out of her right arm's compartment. Danny shuts his eyes, waiting for whatever weapon she's armed to hit him in the core.

It's then that he hears her sigh, and something on the suit pops open.

"Ease up you big baby," Valerie grunts in turn, before something cold wraps around Danny's leg. The Halfa opens one eye, met with the sight of Valerie tending to his burns. Turns out there's a first aid kit in the suit's right arm.

"B-but, I-"

Valerie breaks eye contact. She looks tired, sad. She's holding back tears. It looks like she exhausted herself with all the fighting and yelling. She's only human, after all.

"Save it for when it isn't four in the morning. Yeah, I'm really pissed you lied to me, but I've told you before that I don't hunt humans," Valerie commands, but her voice lacks any real power behind it.

"Except for Vlad?" Danny tries.

"Except for Vlad," Valerie reluctantly agrees with a huff. "At least I haven't seen you try to melt a little girl into goop."

Her shoulders are still tense, her breaths are ragged. Valerie is still very clearly furious with him, but she must be too tired to deal with it. Danny can relate to that. He just wants to collapse in bed and not wake up.

But, being Phantom full time sounds like hell, so he'll put up with it.

Danny decides to bite his tongue while Valerie bandages him up. He can see how bewildered she is, looking at his leg alone, the scars running across most of it from years of hunting. 

There's a reason he started wearing a hoodie, after all. The long sleeves cover his arms, which look far worse than his legs in his opinion. He's changed a lot to accommodate for his late night activities. How much of him is even left after all this time?

"Christ, Fenton. Not even I have this many," Valerie mutters, dropping her hands now that his burns had been taken care of. She lets out a yawn, shaking herself out a bit.

"That's just the leg, if you think that's bad, you should see the rest of it. Not that I don't deserve them after everything I've done…" he grunts, pulling his jeans back over his legs, moving stiffly. 

"....Where else are you hurt?" Valerie demands.

"Don't worry about it, I heal fast." Danny attempts to stand, but Valerie's hand pushes him back to sit down again. Danny returns to meaning into the wall as her glare steels again. Danny shuts up once more, things are rocky enough as is.

"You are one of the closest friends I've ever had since I started this ghost hunting thing. You're the reason I started. And damn it, I hate to see you hurt, Danny! I've seen you being hurt for months now, and I don't know if it's my fault or not so just tell me where it hurts, and stop lying to me for once damn it!"

...wait, what? But, shouldn't she still be furious with him? How could she still consider him a friend after this? If she does, well, maybe he should open up a bit more. She deserves it.

"....my back," Danny relents. " The ghost I was hunting hit me in the back before I caught it."

"Alright, j… just lift up your shirt, show me where it is… I'll get it," Valerie mutters. She's very quiet now, broken. She sounds like how Danny's been feeling since the Tasma thing started.

"It's not your fault, you know. I don't blame you. These are my scars, and I deserve them for everything I've done. And, that includes ruining your life," Danny mumbles, hugging his shoulders.

"Just turn around so I can fix the new one, dumbass," Valerie growls. Danny quickly obeys, turning his back and tugging the rim of his hoodie up just above the scar.

"...Are you free at all, tomorrow?" Valerie asks as she bandages his waist. The thick fabric wraps around Danny's torso, squeezing him to keep the wound from getting infected. He's used to the feeling by this point, at least his ribs aren't broken today.

"I should be, why?" He turns to her slowly. She looks like a mess, trying to wipe away tears as she leans back.

"We need to talk. No more lies, secrets, none of that bull. We need a time and a place, and we need to talk." Valerie's voice continues to waver, but Danny understands why.

"Yeah…. We do, we do need to talk," Danny agrees, pulling the shirt over his fresh bandages.

"Makes you a million times better than Masters," Valerie huffs.

"That so?" Danny raises a brow, turning back to face her.

"I tried to talk to him. The day after I met your cousin, I wanted to talk out why he'd lie, and why he'd hurt someone like that. Didn't want to hear anything about it. I resigned then and there, and..." Valerie cuts herself off, looking sidelong toward the street. She removes her helmet and grips it tightly in her fingers.

Danny can see she doesn't want to tell him the full story, that she doesn't trust him yet. Did Vlad hurt her in any way to keep her silent? The thought makes Danny's blood boil.

"He's not an easy guy to get through to. Seriously, that kind of power is more in his head than anything. He thinks being a halfa makes you invincible, when it's really the opposite. It makes you more vulnerable, a target, a prize to be won." Danny grips his jeans, digging his nails into the worn down denim.

"It's hard to know what's true regarding that guy. But, I'm sure even he's struggling with this… the-"

"Curse. Definitely a curse," Danny cuts in.

"Curse, that comes with being more powerful than the average person. Having the power to hurt people. You just don't know you've hurt yourself until you use that kind of power. Sometimes you don't realise it at all until you see the scars."

"Tell me about it…" Danny sighs, clenching his fists. The guilt begins flooding back to him as he thinks about who he's hurt, and who he was unable to save.

"You haven't been doing so good since the power outage, I've seen it at school for a while now. This stupid ghost hunting thing got me held back a year too, I... I know, Phantom, uh, you caused that outage, so-"

"Save it for the talk," Danny bites harshly. If he grips his jeans any more tightly, he'll rip holes in the fabric with his nails.

"Save it for the talk," Valerie assures. She gets to her feet and stretches. "Need someone to walk home with you?"

"No, it's fine. I just need some alone time. And then we'll… find a place to talk. After we've both had some air," Danny replies, struggling to stand. He grips the wall and pulls himself to his feet.

"Tomorrow it is then. I'll text you about a spot," Valerie agrees. She deactivated her suit with her work done, moving out of the alley and heading off down the street, walking home. As great as flying is, it's understandable she'd want to keep her feet on the ground. Danny can't help but feel the same way.

He stumbles out of the alleyway, spotting the bright neon sign that hangs over his house. It's almost five in the morning now, exhaustion already setting in now that the fight is over. The adrenaline had left his system, leaving him to sleepily stumble home in the dark.

Or that was his plan, until…

"Daniel James Fenton! What on earth were you doing out of the house at this hour?!" His mother's voice rings behind him. Danny barely registers her there, until she's standing right in front of him.

"Mom? Why are you out here this late?" Danny sleepily asks her, feeling his eyes drooping. The fuzzy feeling in his head distorts her image, making his mother appear like an illusion.

"I asked you first, young man, but if you must know I found your bed empty! I thought a ghost got you! Now answer me, Danny, and it had better be a damn good reason, because you look like a truck hit you!" Maddie frets, moving to support his weight.

A truck did hit him. Her name is Tasma, and she ran him over a good few times. But he doesn't want to tell his mother that. Because of all the ghosts in the zone that can get the relentless Maddie Fenton to ease up, it just had to be Tasma.

She and his father have shown interest since she arrived on the scene. They compliment her weapons, praise her for taking down ghosts on the news, they even have Danny and Jazz watch her as an example.

Danny doesn't know when or how it started exactly, but his parents adore Tasma for her hard work while still scorning Phantom. He's tried reasoning with the pair about how she's a ghost, but their opinions are set.

Tasma has an alliance with Vlad after all. Perhaps she used Vlad to get to his parents? It makes their sudden liking to her all the more suspicious. Danny doesn't know her power, but if she's got any kind of influence over his parents to in order to get to him…

"Danny, please. Why are you out here so late?" Maddie cuts in, interrupting his thoughts.

"...sleepwalking, I guess. Didn't realize until I walked into a pole," Danny mumbles. It's a smooth, easy, believable lie. Hopefully his mother is too tired to notice.

With dropping the smaller ghost hunts, there's more time to sleep or heal. Danny thought he would be grateful for more sleep, but the longer nights only serve as more time to think on, and regret, his reckless actions.

So, he still can't get any sleep. While his stomach is twisted in knots and thoughts are running through his head a mile a minute, full of what ifs and why's…. Some nights it's worse than the most severe of injuries. At least his physical injuries heal.

Still, on the topic of his mother being here...

"Well, your father and I were worried sick when you weren't in bed! You're lucky you weren't actually hit by a truck by crossing the street in your sleep!" Maddie scolds. Though, her expression softens after a moment.

Maddie shifts her grip on Danny, pulling the boy easily onto her back. "Come on now, dear. You must be so tired after that little scare. Let's get you home and back to bed."

"Mom, I'm not a kid anymore-"

"Yes, but there is no way you're walking home like this. I'll get you back to bed. Try and get some rest," Maddie smiles, before she starts walking home. It's not like Danny is hard to carry.

Danny in turn closes his eyes, but he can't exactly sleep. After what happened with Valerie, on top of everything to do with Tasma, there's no way in the world he's going to sleep.

With his stomach churning into tighter knots, Danny does his best to focus on the sound of his mother's breathing. He can hear her heartbeat faintly, slowly, but it seems to keep getting drowned out by the sound of his own core humming, trying to heal his injuries no doubt.

Not like it matters. All he wants is some rest for the first time in what feels like forever.

He does eventually doze off on his mother's back, not even having heard the door as she takes him back to bed.


	5. Weight In Your Chest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghostanimal is a lovely beta, go give him your love and appreciation

Danny runs the apology over in his head for what feels like the millionth time.

He stands in the park, too nervous to bother sitting down. That, and the harsh sting of a recent burn mark still makes his back end sore. It really does bite, not only being shot at every day, but being hit.

He couldn't even fly here without being intercepted by Tasma, forcing him to walk here after losing her again. Alleyways really are his only saving grace when it comes to escaping Tasma's trigger happy wrath.

Danny winces, doing his best to ice the stinging burn while he waits. Better go though his apology again before Valerie gets here.

Now that they're both rested and it's actually a decent hour, she's probably going to be even more furious. Letting the information stew in her brain, letting her hatred grow. She always has been attack first, ask later.

Danny already warned his friends he might need extra painkillers from whatever bruises he's going to walk away with today. The pills sit in his back pocket, and he'd already taken a pair dry to deal with today's stinging burn. Stupid Tasma…

No, today isn't about Tasma. It's about Valerie. Let the Tasma thing go for just a little while, focus on what's important in the here and now.

Hopefully, this will help Danny remedy one of the many mistakes over his life. If he can earn Valerie's forgiveness for ruining her life, it would take some of the crushing weight off his chest.

Valerie, Tasma, heck even his parents. He'd ridiculed, ruined and wrecked their lives in so many ways. Thousands of other problems, other mistakes take hold of his mind, and he's left swimming in his doubts again.

But, no. Not today. He can't allow this to cripple him today. Today is just about one of his mistakes. One of his many, many mistakes. This would have happened some day, anyway.

Today, he's going to apologise to Valerie. Explain to Valerie. Get everything to do with her off his shoulders. Maybe then she's going to forgive them, and they can be friends again.

Yeah right, keep dreaming Fenton. 

Valerie will never forgive you. Neither will Tasma. Neither will anyone. You can't take any of what you've done back. Jazz's warning from weeks ago echo in his mind, tears beginning to burn his eyes.

"Huh, I was hoping last night was some hazy dream, but here you are anyway."

Danny looks up at the sound of Valerie's voice. She's coming through the gates of the park, dressed in her favorite outfit, the one with the sleeveless yellow shirt and skirt. So, no ghost hunting equipment is armed, yet. It’s a good start.

"Yeah, unfortunately not… that was real," Danny confirms, biting back the tears. He almost wishes he could convince her it was a dream. Then this conversation wouldn't have to happen.

The two stand in awkward silence. A few minutes stretch on for what feels like hours, the sounds of birds chirping and leaves swaying in the breeze filling the crushing silence.

"You… you wanna sit down?" Valerie asks after a while, taking a seat on the bench. The old, sodden thing creaks under the slight weight.

"I… I would. I really would. But uh, Tasma got me in the rear on my way over here and it… I still… I don't want to sit on it." Danny flushes with complete embarrassment. His face feels as burning hot as his rear, and he may as well full die telling Valerie he'd been shot there.

"Well, I guess it is kind of an easy target," Valerie smirks.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"A-anyway, explanations. You wanted some explanations," Danny swiftly changes the topic. His voice shakes, mentally wondering how much awkwardness it takes to kill a man.

"Right. Explanations. Everything you've got, Fenton." Valerie coughs into her hand. She then straightens her posture a bit, shifting on the rickety bench to look at him better.

"Okay, I'm… uh… let me start with… I'm sorry," Danny begins. "And I know a million apologies won't take back how much I've hurt you, but I really do mean it. I ruined your life, I made a fool out of you in front of the whole town, and I let you get hurt. There's no taking that back, and I'm sorry."

Danny feels like his throat is so tight, he'll begin to choke any second now. It's a miracle he's even able to breathe while he speaks. Valerie says nothing, only raising a brow and motioning for him to continue.

"As for why… I," he coughs, tight feelings getting the better of him for a brief moment. "It started off almost four years ago by now. The portal, in my parents basement? That's how it happened."

Danny starts the story from the beginning. How he, Sam and Tucker were all there on that fateful day. His parents were gone, off to rework the blueprints for the portal, leaving the lab unlocked and unattended for three young teens to sneak in.

He remembers waking up confused, unsure of what exactly happened. He only knows it hurt like being shot by a hundred thousand lasers at once, and suddenly he was a ghost. A ghost that could do the impossible and come back to life. A Halfa.

He didn't know what his parents would think, so he hid it. Cast the experience into the shadows and praying the effects would fade. They never did, obviously.

That's when the "game" started. Pretending to be a superhero, with all the fancy powers to boot. It was a funny idea, a joke, something completely ridiculous and every comic book nerd's dream.

It stopped being a game rather quickly. When people's lives came into real danger, and the thought that someone could die, would die, if he didn't do anything seemed to overtake any other reasoning. And thus instead of leaving while he could, he pulled himself deeper down the rabbit hole.

"Cujo isn't mine. He has a collar, and the tag has him under Axion Labs ownership. I was just trying to catch him, but I've always been poor with animal care. Add malfunctioning powers on top of a dog that turns into a behemoth barely out if it's own will, and you get the disaster that started your career…" Danny takes some time to pause, finally finding it in him to sit down.

Valerie stays quiet for a minute, processing everything Danny had told her up to this point. She then turns to him and gives him a rather hefty jab in the shoulder with her fist.

Danny hisses in pain, rubbing the quickly bruising spot as Valerie turns away from him again.

"There. Now we're even," Valerie grunts.

"Wait, that's it? No weapons, or shooting, or punching me with your suit on?" Danny looks a bit confused. He continues to rub the shoulder she had hit, secretly grateful she hasn't pulled a weapon out yet. The sting from Tasma's blast was bad enough.

"Judging by the scars hidden under your hoodie, I've shot you more than enough times," Valerie grunts. She turns away for a split second, holding an unreadable expression. Guilt, perhaps?

No, no she shouldn't be the guilty one. He deserves every single one of those scars for hurting her. He's the one at fault, not her. She's the victim here. So why does she look so guilty?

Danny continues rubbing his arm, moving to stare at the ground. The sound of birds chirping fills the empty air again.

"Actually, I really should be thanking you," Valerie mentions offhandedly. She fiddles with her skirt a bit to make the fabric on her lap lay flatly and more comfortably. The thing could bunch up under her legs while sitting and it can be such a distracting feeling.

"Th…. Thanking me? But I've done nothing but hurt you for four years..." Danny tilts his head, completely filled with confusion. He's a bit taken aback by Valerie's sudden gratitude.

"So have I," Valerie mutters. "But, even if your rookie mistakes had dire consequences, I'm willing to let it go."

"What? Why? But, but your father lost his job because of me! You lost everything and it's my fault! I… I shouldn't be forgiven for something like that." Danny stares at the ground. He kicks a stray pile of leaves that had blown off the tree in the breeze.

"Forgiveness isn't accepting it, Fenton. Forgiving you means I'm still willing to be your friend. If you hadn't done what you did, we wouldn't even be friends in the first place. Think on that one before you call yourself unforgivable," Valerie mentions.

"Really? Do you… really think that we can still be friends?" Danny tries. He turns back to look at her, a misty hope in his eyes.

"Well, yeah. Besides, I may have lost my old life, but I'm happier than I was before. I learned some really tough lessons, and I had to work hard to get back on my feet, but I'm a better person for it, and have real friends to show for it now," Valerie admits.

"Yeah, you kind of have to learn things the hard way when a lemon gets thrown at you at mach eighty." Danny chuckles. "Then you rub your head and see fate grinning at you like a smug bastard, ready to throw more lemons."

"That's one way to think about it," Valerie snickers in turn. Danny laughs too, and soon the duo are in a fit of laughs.

“So, are we good? Really then?” Danny asks after his chuckling died down.

“Yea Fenton, we’re good, but you are taking over my patrol route tonight and tomorrow, and you better catch all the ghosts in Elmerton. I have to work in the morning and I can’t be late again.” Valerie says with a wry grin, lightly smacking his arm again.

“That’s fair. It’s the least I can do,” Danny agreed offering a hesitant smile of his own. 

"Now, while we're out here… want to tell me what's had you down over the past couple months, pouty pants?" Valerie nudges him lightly.

Danny's jovial mood seems to drop like a rock at that. The sinking feeling in his gut begins creeping into every fiber of his being. Right. They were going to talk about that too.

After this, Valerie wouldn't forgive him a second time. Not after what he did, not after what's been done. But, he promised her an explanation. She deserves an explanation.

"Oh. The power outage thing, huh? Well… turns out I ruined someone else's life recently, too." His shoulders sag. The sinking feeling makes him feel like his body is made of muck.

"Another rookie mistake? That one shorted out the whole city. Did you blow up someone's generator or something?" Valerie tries. She stops nudging him, seeing something seriously wrong with his attitude shift.

"Not… not exactly. Though I may have…" he cuts himself off, leaning into the bench with a shaky sigh.

"May have what? Danny, this has been eating at you for months! I'd like to think talking to someone about it might-"

"I created Tasma." Danny bites the words out with a firm resolve, his whole body tensing. "I got a new power, and releasing it overloaded the power grid. I'm the one that made Tasma."

Valerie goes silent again. She looks shocked, bewildered. "Danny, that's-"

"Messed up?" He interrupts, eyes flaring green as he stares at the ground. "Vile, evil, unforgivable? I killed someone a couple months ago, Valerie."

His body is shaking, and he feels like he's going to implode on himself.

"You couldn't have known-" Valerie tries, only for Danny to cut her off again.

"But I should have! I should have known to be more careful. That those hiccups were a sign, that I would cause damage, but then that ghost hawk slashed into me and I-"

Valerie puts a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. It was an accident. And sure, you may be a liar, but you're the nicest guy I've ever met. The Danny Fenton I've known the last four years would never kill anyone, not on purpose."

Danny sighs, taking in Valerie's words. He grips at his jeans and feels her hand on his back, there to comfort him. He doesn't deserve this, but it eases his tension. "But I still did it, and I'll never be able to apologise to her…"

"Then that's her problem. Tasma doesn't realise how blinded she is to the situation she's in. Not yet, at least," Valerie takes a moment to lean back on the bench. "And, hey. You finally got me to listen to you. Tasma just needs more time."

"More time, huh?" Danny sighs. The silence that follows is quickly interrupted, ghost sense going off and mist trailing into the air.

Valerie raises a brow seeing the mist only to stare in wonderment at her wrist alert a moment later. “Huh, you want to work together on this one?” she asks with raised brow. 

Danny nods, growing a bit more eager. “As long as you aren’t planning on shooting me for prosperity's sake,” he teases, feeling a bit better now. He pulls himself to his feet and looked around the area before diving behind a tree to transform, Valerie following suit, her hunting gear spreading over her body, before the pair take to the air. 

“So you know where this ghost is?” Valerie asks inclining her head to allow Phantom to stay in her peripheral vision as they fly. 

“Yeah, I got a built in sensor. Comes in handy when I want to be woken up at three in the morning,” he responds with a knowing smirk. “Also can’t turn it off for added insomnia.” 

Valerie snorts and shakes her head. “How did I never figure you out from bad jokes alone?” 

“What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t like Phantom’s dead-pan humor?” 

“Focus Fenton.” She snaps, pouring on her speed to get away from the joking spectre. 

“What’s with the death glare?” he snickers only for a missle to careen towards him, forcing him to dodge. 

“Hey, good timing tin can!” Valerie says as she launches a few shots off in the general direction Skulker was hiding within the clouds.

“Well well, human, how nice to see you again” Skulker muses, his metallic face stretching into a grin, as he fades back into visibility.

“Can’t say the same!” Valerie shoots back. 

Danny had blown up the missiles and rounded back around on Skulker launching a volley of ice towards the robotic ghost. 

Skulker dodges and launches an attack of his own towards Valerie, forcing the huntress to take evasive actions into the sky, leaving Danny an opening to try a new attack of his own. The blast struck true hitting Skulker’s shoulder, but the ghost recovers easily, launching a net gun in retaliation. 

Danny grins as he dodged it, “Ha you missed! Your aim is getting worse Skulker!” he chides as he twisted about bringing his palms together to form a large blast at the ghosts head, which Skulker ducks away from.

“Wasn’t aiming for you whelp!” he shoots back with a wide knowing smile. 

Danny blinks, turning to look at where the net went only to see Valerie’s engine tangled up by the ecto netting. He lets out a rather undignified squawk and dives after her, only to get shot in the back by a searing hot blast. 

Tasma had entered the scene. 

Danny grunts against the pain, managing to shoot the net free from Valerie’s air sled before spinning in mid air to make a shield just in time as a glowing knife was thrown his way from a laughing Skulker.

Danny is quick to evade, but the glowing blade does catch his arm, it's not a deep injury thankfully. Danny tries to rush in, intending on helping Valerie, only to be cut off by a hot blast from Tasma.

Thankfully, Valerie recovers easily enough on her own and makes a B-line for the metallic ghost, launching a volley of shots at the robotic menace.

Tasma blocks Danny from entering the fray, appearing in front of him and making it hard for the teen to go around her. The fire in her eyes makes it clear she is intent on pursuing the younger Halfa. Danny can't find a way to lose her this time, with every move Danny makes Tasma is right on his tail stopping him, leaving Valerie to fight Skulker alone.

“Oh come on!” he gripes, only to yelp as a yellow blast sailed over his head taking out a few hairs from his too close for comfort dodge. 

Tasma growls and shoots forward suddenly, abandoning her blasters in favour of a physical attack. The surprise attack works, catching Danny off guard as he takes the hit directly into his jaw. The force of the hit sends him sprawling backwards through the air. 

Valerie launches a blast at Skulker who dodges the attack, letting the blast sail by him and over towards Danny, forcing him to throw up a shield having no time to dodge. 

“Watch it!” he calls, only yelp as Skulker lunged towards him. A machattie is at the ready to try to take his head clear off.

“Your head will be on my mantel yet, whelp!” Skulker spat with the close swipe of the large blade, only to shout in pain as Tasma shoots him in the back. 

With a growl the hunter ghost rounds on Tasma, flying through her blasts in an attempt to cut her, only for the golden blasts to merge into one and smack into Danny, from behind. The attack on Danny costs Tasma precious time to dodge, though she didn’t need it. Pressing onto the ghost’s arm, she flips gracefully over Skulker.

Valerie swoops in from behind Skulker, ramming the ghost with her sled and knocking him back leaving both him and Tasma to soar uncontrollably through the air a moment. 

Skulker rights himself first and launches a bola towards his prey catching and electrifying Danny’s leg making him flail in the air and call out in pain. He falls to the ground as the weapon disrupted his powers, Tasma hot on his tail. 

Valerie manages to get in a good shot on Skulker’s wing, clipping it and causing it to spark. “Got ya!” She calls triumphantly moving in close to finish off the robotic spectre. 

Tasma follows Danny’s descent, speeding up to kick him harder into the ground, causing a crater to appear beneath him as he crashed to the earth. 

Danny groans, his head throbbing, only to let out an exasperated sigh as Tasma’s blaster was suddenly shoved under his nose. 

“Is it still too late to try to apologize to you?” Danny tries offering his best smile.

“You’re finished, ghost.” Tasma spat, before the sounds of gunshots filled his ears. 

Danny shuts his eyes, waiting for the painful blast.

He winces only to realize that Valerie had caught a break in fighting Skulker, shooting Tasma in the back to get the other Halfa off him.

“Let him go!” Valerie growls as she speeds through the smoke.

Tasma gets to her feet, arming her blaster. But, she keeps it to her side, not wanting to hit Valerie. Still, a disappointed fury is present in what Danny can see of her face.

"Change of heart, huntress? I thought you were stronger than that," Tasma scoffs, before smacking the side of Danny’s head with the butt of her blaster, causing his world to reel in response, and lurch sideways.

Everything fades to black for a moment.

The next thing Danny knows, the ground is zipping beneath him as he’s held by his belt in Tasma’s grasp, Valerie hot on their tail. “Ugh not the best view…” he groans looking a little more green then usual. 

Danny coils around and tries to gather his energy into a blast, only for his hand to emit a small spark and nothing more. Clearly there was something more to the weapon Skulker had hit him with. 

“Not good!” Danny hisses, biting his lip. He stares at the trails his hands start to make. Why does it seem everything is moving too fast and too slow at the same time? He can’t focus enough to get a blast to form, let alone phase out of Tasma’s iron tight grip. Just what is Skulkers latest upgrade doing to him?

The loud hum of Valerie's hoverboard echoes behind him as he sways from his belt, rubbery hazmat material stretching a bit as Tasma grips his jumpsuit. Danny can barely find the will to even twitch in this state.

More blasts echo in his ears, Tasma and Valerie clearly shooting at each other. Danny can't really register what's going on around him. He can only hope in his fuzzy state of mind that Valerie will rescue him.

"I said give him back, Tasma! You don't know what you're doing if you destroy him!" Valerie cries desperately, firing at her opponent with everything she has on her.

"To think even you could fall under Phantom's influence," Tasma tuts, almost sounding like a disappointed parent. She then regains her defensive posture and deflects everything Valerie fires at her.

"I'm not under his influence! Things have changed, you're the one being tricked, Tasma!" Valerie cries. But, Tasma is beyond reason, set in her ways and her actions.

"Any hunter with self respect never falls under the influence of her prey! Therefore, you have lost my own respect by joining Phantom. So be it, Red Huntress," the elder halfa growls, firing one last blast. It connects with the engine on Valerie's board, causing her to fall out of the air.

"Val...rie…" Danny tries to call after her, face feeling numb and fingers barely twitching as he attempts to reach for her.

"You've made enemies with the wrong Halfa, Huntress. And now, I'll finally get my revenge on this filthy scum," she hisses with determination. Picking up speed, Tasma flies off into the distance.

"No, come back! Danny!" Valerie cries after the retreating duo of halfas. Her metal fist pounds into the ground as her hoverboard smokes behind her. Her strength wavers, the impact of the fall having taken the rest of her energy.

In the meantime, Tasma finally returns to city hall. Phantom is still being dangled by his belt, weak and pathetic in every sense of the word. A crowd gathers near the building, seeing the ghost Vlad had hired with Phantom in tow. And here they thought they were gathering for a town meeting about the ghost repair funds, not this...

People watch in awe and horror. Every witness to this event is too shocked and bewildered to believe what they're seeing.

Phantom is defeated. It isn't a trick, it isn't a lie. The ghost is limp in Tasma's grasp as she lands near the entrance to the large building.

A long, slow clapping soon follows Tasma's arrival. Vlad walks out, smiling widely. He moves toward Tasma with the most sly of grins.

"Citizens of Amity Park. If we could all show our appreciation to Tasma, here? Her success will go down in history as far as I'm concerned, finally catching the destructive town menace," Vlad announces proudly.

Silence follows. No one cheers, nor does anyone protest. Complete and utter silence hushes over the crowd, though a few shift and share unnerved glances with one another.

"Yes, well. If that is all, Tasma and I will now discuss matters in my office. Rest assured, your city is now firmly within safer hands," Vlad purrs, before beckoning Tasma to follow.

The Halfa in question merely rolls her eyes, slugging Phantom over her shoulder and following the mayor into City Hall.

"Everything aside, I could not be more proud. You really do live up to what you claim, Tasma. A very skilled hunter indeed. I'm sure my lessons on controlling those powers of yours were helpful?" Vlad folds his arms behind his back, grinning at the now unconscious boy being held like a sack of potatoes.

"Well, I wouldn't be in the ghost hunting business if I was bad at it. Though, I don't think I would have gotten him as quickly without your lessons in control," Tasma admits.

"Yes, we halfas do have to stick together, hmm? Though, I would be much obliged to know your human form…" Vlad mentions.

"You would have to show me your spectral form first, Vlad. It would only be fair," Tasma offers in turn.

"Unfortunately, that is an impossibility. I may know my ghost abilities well, but my spectral half is so incredibly unstable! I'd melt on the spot if I were to transform," Vlad explains with a smirk.

Danny's hazy eyes open a moment, glossy. He mutters "liar" with the little strength he has.

Tasma hits him over the head with her blaster again. "Can it, spook. No one here cares what you have to say."

And just like that, Danny is out cold again.

"Regardless, if you can't show me your spectral form, I won't show you my physical one. The deal was training in exchange for Phantom. Well, here's Phantom for you." Tasma tosses the boy on the ground like a bag of trash, the unconscious form melding limply into the refined carpet.

"Yes, well, a deal is a deal. Feel free to use what I have taught you to continue hunting the ghosts of this city. After all, unlike the fool at my feet, I have no reason to stop you." Vlad's eyes seem to light up, pleased to see Phantom at his mercy, his and his alone.

"One more question before I leave, Mr. Masters," Tasma cuts in. "What exactly do you plan on doing to Phantom?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Classified, really. But, rest assured, when I'm done with him, he'll be an entirely new kind of ghost. And my experiments are sure to be very, very painful if it puts your need for vengeance to rest," Vlad purrs, taking the boy in his own arms.

"If you insist. Then, I suppose this is the place where we part ways? It's a shame I won't have the chance to study Phantom for myself…" Tasma mutters bitterly.

"Don't worry, Tasma. Phantom may not belong to you at this time, but I will take great precision and care with my research," Vlad assures.

"Farewell then, Vlad Masters." Tasma fades out of view and vanishes.

"Farewell indeed. To you, and to the Daniel you thought you knew," Vlad declares darkly. He can't help but snicker as he holds the unconscious form in his arms.

His chuckling builds, until the entire, empty building is filled with maniacal laughter.


	6. Phantasmal Regrets

Danny has been missing a week.

Ever since Phantom disappeared, in fact. Although, the ghost boy hadn't actually vanished. It must still be with Vlad, suffering for all the horrible acts it had committed

Good. Ever since that ectoplasmic scum had cursed her with these horrid powers, Maddie knew he had to be dealt with, then and there. To be so powerful as to hybridize a human and ghostly energy, as well as to cause her so much pain…

Well, Phantom is getting what it deserves. Maddie had only adopted the moniker of "Tasma" as an insult to the specter personally. A play on Phantasma, or Phantasmagoria. She knew it was her that would bring the end to Phantom's illusions.

But, Phantom isn't her problem anymore. No. Her son has been missing a week, and the authorities nor herself have found anything on where he's run off to.

It's been a few days, and Maddie had patrolled the city in and out in her spectral form to find him for hours on end. She was just about at the end of her rope when the doorbell rings.

Danny's at the door, a cop standing behind him. "We found him, Mrs. Fenton. He was near city hall when we finally located him."

Overwhelming relief takes Maddie as she rushes to her son, hugging him tightly and crying into his shoulder. She holds her child in her embrace, so overjoyed that he's safe and sound.

Danny easily pushes her off him and walks into the house with a scowl. He'd just come home, now seemingly having become brooding and bitter. It was as if someone flipped a switch in him, turning him dark and angry.

Maddie politely thanks the officers for bringing him home before closing the door. 

Jack comes down the stairs, patting his son on the shoulder. "So, Danny-o, where were you this whole time? Your mother and I were very worried-"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Danny mutters, brushing Jack off and moving up to his room.

"Danny! You've been missing for a week! I think you at least owe us an explanation! You didn't even call us and then suddenly you're in front of city hall?" Maddie demands.

The boy ignores her and heads into his room, shutting the door rather harshly. Things only seemed to go downhill from there.

What was supposed to be a nice family dinner to celebrate Danny's return home soon became another nightmare all on its own.

"Daniel James Fenton, how dare you use that language, and directing it at your father no less!" She shouted.

"I'm just stating facts. Dad's just being an idiot again," he'd spat back, moving to continue picking at the meal before him.

"Young man, you apologise to your father right now, or you will be grounded for the next month, on top of how much trouble you're in for vanishing on us for a week!" Maddie yowled, offended and bewildered her son would speak in that kind of tone, to his parents no less!

"Ground me?" Danny scoffs sarcastically. "I'm eighteen, mom. And that means I'm an adult, you can't ground me," he grunts in turn rather angrily. His nails dig into the wood of the dinner table.

Maddie looks between her son and her husband. The deep look betrayal on Jack's face and Danny's seething fury. It makes it extremely hard to keep her own emotions in check.

Maddie knows that the ectoplasm in her veins might act up if she didn't suppress it with all her willpower. If it did, a burning cold would turn her eyes yellow, bright and searing right in front of her son.

"Well, if you're so grown up, then apologise to your father like a mature adult!" She roars, biting back the ectoplasm in her veins.

"No! I'm done apologizing for his stupid mistakes! Let him face the consequences of his stupidity once in a while!" Danny roars at her, shooting out of his chair.

"Daniel!" Maddie scolds, her own temper rising.

"Screw this! I'm going to my room!" He hisses at them, shoving the chair aside and stomping furiously up the stairs.

Jack continues to stare where Danny was sitting, confused, bewildered and lost. The man can't find the words as his expression moves to sadness.

It takes a minute for Maddie to realize her eyes are glowing. She looks between the stairs and her husband, wondering if the one in the room that wasn't aware of her hybrid nature had seen.

Jack was there for her accident, and they'd toughed out this hybrid ghost situation together, as the dynamic duo they had always been.

But Danny can't know, he can never know about what that damned Phantom turned her into. A freak, a monster, something she told her children were evil and without higher consciousness. He can never know what became of her that day months ago.

Unless…

Does he already know? Could he have figured out that his mother is a ghost? No matter how she wished it not to be, ectoplasm is a piece of her now. Perhaps she hasn't been subtle enough.

Did he run away to get away from her? A ghost, an evil spirit that had taken his mother's place? 

But, no. That makes little sense. If it was she herself that Danny was mad at, he would have been insulting her directly. No, for some reason, Danny is mad at his father. Fed up? Did he blame Jack for her ghostlines? What happened out there to turn her son against his father?

She firmly grounds Danny after that awful meal, locking down his computer privilege for the night. She needs that time to process exactly what she had witnessed back there. Tomorrow, Maddie needs to talk to her son, and figure out what happened to him.

Needless to say, her sleep is restless. Tossing and turning, and not even Jack can be heard snoring beside her. She can only dread what tomorrow will bring...

Maddie moves up to Danny's room, the sun peeking through the windows as it rises. It's a beautiful morning outside. Though, Maddie finds it hard to be as cheery as the chirping birds outside.

Clenching her fist, Maddie moves to knock on the door. Deep breaths, in and out. This is Danny she's talking to, her son, her pride and joy, her baby. She's known him his whole life. And yet her heart still flutters in nervousness.

Although… he has been distant. And not just lately. For the past four years, he'd been pushing her away. He'd run off on his own all the time, barely ever was home… When he was home, he was flighty and nervous. Quick to leave at any opportunity and at random.

Is this change in him really so spontaneous? Last night had to be the first dinner he'd actually sat through in years. Every other night, he would run off in the middle if the meal and not come back. She never questioned it, thinking that he just needed his space as he grew. Should she have pushed him harder to stay?

Was all of that last night a culmination of her failure to be there for him in his teenage years? Even before he began to distance himself, she was always so busy. Always buried in her work even as Danny tugged on the belt of her jumpsuit and begged her to take him to the park. Maddie became so busy, it took her far too long to realize he'd stopped insisting for her to come to him.

With her and Jack allowing him to so insistently distance himself, had their son grown angry about their negligence?

With being Tasma on top of everything else in her life, Maddie barely sees Danny anymore. The call to duty to defend the town had pulled her from him even more in turn. Could her pulling away be causing that anger to keep festering deeper?

She takes a few more breaths. She has to keep her own emotions under control as well, otherwise this whole tentative confrontation would be for nothing. She hasn’t failed to notice how the ethereal matter flowing in her veins had made her emotions more potent. Ghosts were emotional beings after all…

She shakes her head to clear it before rapping on the wooden door, a motion she had done countless times in the past, but the weight of each knock seemed to play heavily onto her heart. She shifts her stance from leg to leg as she waits for Danny to open the door to her. A shuffling can be heard from within, and she knocks again.

A groan can be heard, long and annoyed, before the door opens to a half asleep looking teen. Maddie offers a smile to him hoping that he wouldn’t be in too bad of a mood from her waking him up. 

“What?” He barked out at her, dashing her hopes of civil conversation almost instantly. 

Maddie pulls in air through her nose and out her mouth carefully making sure her own annoyance wouldn’t spark. She tactfully decides not to reprimand him for his greeting and instead matches his annoyance with a stern order. “We need to talk.” 

He rolls his eyes and seems to debate something a moment in his head, before he gives an exasperated sigh of his own and steps to the side. “Fine,” he grunts out.

Maddie nods, grateful that he was at least willing to hear her out, though she can only hope his ears weren’t as closed down to her presence as his room seemed to be. 

“Well, I guess I’ll start with again trying to get you to tell me where you were and why? You refuse to tell us an-” Maddie was drowned out almost instantly with a loud annoyed groan. 

“Seriously? This again? I told you guys to drop it. I just needed alone time okay?” he huffed slumping down onto his bed bonelessly. The headboard smacked harshly against the drywall echoing around the room. 

The mother couldn’t stop the glare that formed on her face, nor could she put halt to the downward pulling at her lips as a deep scowl graced her features. “Daniel. I don’t care if you are eighteen or eighty. I am still your mother and I worry about you, and I need to know what happened so please entertain me and help put my mind at rest.” She bit out, her emotions leaking far too much into her voice for her liking.

“Since you have come home from that you have been nothing but miserable! If there is something that we have done that made you feel like you need to act out then I want to know! You used to be my sweet boy, and you always showed us your heart no matter what but now you’re so closed off… and it worries me,” She manages out her voice trailing off betraying her, and becoming weak as she speaks. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Danny responds rather flippantly, Maddie’s words barely making a difference. "I'm not a kid anymore, Mom. I'm not some baby, or some angel, or whatever pathetic, weak, frail image you're putting over me. I'm a grown man now, and I don't need you fawning over me, or babying me, or pitying me. I'm my own man, and I have my own life outside sitting pretty around here all the time, so shove it!" he growls.

Danny looks her dead in the eyes as he speaks. His tone is as cold as ice, and his fury electric. Resentment, malice, and a thousand other dark, terrible emotions swirl behind his red rimmed eyes.

"Danny… If this is my fault, please… tell me how to make it right!" Maddie begs her son. She tries to grab his hand, only for him to drag it away as if burned. Something he's been doing the past four years, ever since that lackluster camping trip in Colorado.

"Fix it? I'm pretty sure it's too late for that," Danny scoffs, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pocket. "You've long since lost my respect, you and Jack both."

Maddie's heart stops a moment. The words sear her heart, each syllable like a nail being driven into her chest. Had she and Jack been so poor to him that he didn't see them as his parents anymore? Her baby, her Danny… how could she have let things get this far? Her own anger fear and worry mingling in her core and she fights hard to keep the emotions from leaking through.

"I'm moving out."

Three words seize her mind, heart and soul all at once. They turn to ice at the mere thought of what her child has just said to her. He's leaving? No, no he can't leave, he…

"Danny, you still have to finish high school, you can't, you don't even have a job, you can't leave!" Maddie begs, but it's clear she's grasping at straws here. Every child has to leave eventually, but every instinct in her, human and ghostly, is screaming that it's too soon to say goodbye.

"I made up my mind. I already have a place to stay. I only came back because I needed to pack my things," Danny growls out.

"With who?! Where are you even going, why now!?" Maddie demands, feeling her core burning beneath her heart. Every ounce of her self control keeps the awful energy reigned in her chest.

"Well, if you had cared to pay me a bit more attention, maybe you would know," Danny spits. He glares at her, sky blue eyes still dark with pure negative emotion. But, the smallest, slightest amount of satisfaction lays buried deeper still.

Maddie can't help it any longer. She shuts her eyes tight, bursting into a waterfall of tears. Her boy, her son, she had so horribly wronged him. This truly is the manifestation of her neglect, her weakness and her shortcomings. Her family is now paying the price for her failure as a mother.

No wonder Danny hates her. She couldn't see this at all, didn't see it in any of the four years since he started to pull away. She just let him, she let him drift further and further, until this angry manifestation of her failure is all that remains to reflect her love.

"Danny, please, I'm sorry-"

"Sorry doesn't cut it in this day and age. You're the one that needs to grow up," he growls. "Now would you get out of my room? I need to pack."

Maddie nods, looking away. She doesn't want him to see the burning yellow in her eyes, not now. The fact that she can't admit how much of a monster she is churns in her consciousness, amongst a turmoil of negativity.

She needs air. She needs to go out for a bit. Maddie stumbles out of Danny's room, taking shakey steps across the hall to the master bedroom. 

She'll relay what transpired to Jack later. He's still hurt from dinner yesterday, and adding this burden would not do well for the man's soul right now. What she needs is air, space, time to process…

Maddie reaches for the churning core in her chest. The cold, sparking energy swirls in her consciousness as always. It's otherworldly and unnatural, but Vlad had taught her how to use it, weaponize the energy, turn it into something much greater than herself when she was human.

Yellow rings snap into place. The transformation had become more natural as she used it. The yellow light splits, dyeing her once light blue jumpsuit a deep crimson. A tattered, burned lab coat falls around her shoulders, auburn hair turning a wispy light blue. 

Gloves, boots and belt turn snow white, the grim reminder of who was responsible for this other form existing. Phantom, that damn Phantom. She hopes the ghost is writhing in pain under lab lights wherever it is.

Although, with that ghost gone, things seem to have grown much more mundane. Other specters didn't hold a candle to the elusive ghost that once haunted the skies, with its cunning display and strategic, calculated escape plans. Pity she didn't get to study Phantom herself.

Still, a deal was a deal. Amity Park belongs to her now. Phantom should know better than to return, if it ever escapes that is.

Maddie phases through the bedroom window, heading off into the morning sky. A flight to clear her head, a quick patrol, that should get her back to thinking straight.

A quick weave in and around the alleyways of the town is enough to cool her off. No ghosts are around, and not many people spare her a glance. They have yet to accept her like they had Phantom. Though she shouldn't be surprised; she'd rather not force people into servitude like that other ghost.

She's passing the mall when a scream catches her ears. Quick as she can muster, Maddie heads out towards the direction of the panic. People scatter from the mall as some kind of commotion happens inside.

Phasing through the roof, Maddie can't believe her eyes as she takes in the scene before her. 

It's Phantom.

Phantom had escaped? No, impossible! How had he escaped!? The specter puts a large bag of stolen items over its shoulder like a sack of potatoes, grinning most ferally. His red eyes (Red? Maddie could have sworn Phantom had green eyes…) are full of evil intent as it blasts a guard with an ectoblast.

"Phantom! How dare you attack these innocent civilians!?" Maddie roars at her escaped nemesis. "Vlad had you locked up for good!"

Phantom can only grin wider at that, searing red eyes bringing a new tone to his face she's never seen before. True, malicious, evil intent. Other emotions like greed and pride swirl in the most awful concoction.

"On the contrary," the specter spits, "Vlad freed me. He released me from the childish mindset I once owned and is now helping me to realize my true potential."

Maddie can only stare as the world seems to grow closer and more foreboding. "No! That's impossible! Vlad couldn't have freed you, he should be controlling a foul beast like you!"

Her words are preceded by the sound of long, slow, and drawn out claps. A dark chuckle leaks into the room as Phantom gives a wider grin, fanged and feral.

The Wisconsin Ghost phases into the wall behind Phantom. "He's still very much under my control. I can't thank you enough for bringing him to me."

"Vlad? Is that, no, no you can't be Vlad! He told me his ghost half was too unstable, that morphing would kill him, you can't be Vlad!" Maddie begins sputtering incoherently, but some part of her can recognise the smug grin of her old college friend on the Wisconsin Ghost. First she was turned away and betrayed by her son and now Vlad?

"Did I do well, Father?" Phantom smiles up to Vlad, a childlike grin on the young ghosts face. Vlad reaches down and ruffles the boys snow white hair.

"You did a most superb job, Daniel. You truly are the perfect half ghost son," Vlad praises.

"Half ghost!? What, but, I-" Maddie us at a loss for words. Phantom, a Halfa? Impossible, everything that's happening here is completely impossible!

But deep in her core, she knows it isn't. Some deep, obscure part of her should have seen Phantom's humanity sooner. As she looks back on the past few months, it seemed so obvious. The way the boy begged, pleaded, desperately cried out for her to stop and listen, but she kept going regardless. 

Maddie, in her anger and spite, had lost her own humanity. Rationality and reasoning was abandoned in her burning lust for revenge. The price of that revenge was closing off the door to one just like her, and opening it up to the evil and overtaken man before her, one who clearly lost his humanity years ago. And now, he had taken Phantom's.

The painful irony is not lost on her...

Vlad is the Wisconsin Ghost, Phantom is actually a Halfa as well, and she just gave a child with the same condition she has to a man with malicious intent. It's too much for her mind to handle, everything of the days events compiling, leaving her to stand there stupefied.

The red eyed Phantom continues to smile up at Vlad as Maddie looks between the two, looking desperately for answers. The Wisconsin Ghost can only smile with the most wicked of grins back at her.

"Now, now Tasma? What's with that look? I have given you everything you wanted, didn't I? Revenge on your killer, the training you needed to control your powers, Amity Park under your protection? It's everything you wanted from me. But, nothing comes without a price."

"No, stop! I didn't know Phantom was a Halfa! Please, he's just a child, let him go! I don't know what you did to him, but undo it!" Maddie cries. Vlad can only laugh loudly.

"You didn't know? And here I thought you were smarter than that, Maddie…" he purrs out. "You've outlived your usefulness to me. I have the boy, and you still remain loyal to my own killer. I will find my own way around that, but I insist, for you to enjoy what you've earned to its fullest, while you still can."

Phantom and Vlad both burst into maniacal laughter as they vanish with the stolen items. Maddie can only float there, in the empty mall. The deafening silence there allows her intrusive thoughts to return, despite her fighting for the contrary. 

She's a failure. She failed Danny, she failed Phantom, she failed to retrieve the stolen goods, and she failed the town. In her thick headed, brash judgements, she never stopped to think. She neglected her son, hunted a child and gave a foul, horrid, manipulative man that child's life.

Heavens above, Phantom really was just a child. A child with powers like her no less, dealing with them for so much longer. How old was that poor boy when this curse took hold of him? Who's child had she attempted to murder in midair, a whole town watching?

Maddie lets herself float to the ground, a ragged, emotionally exhausted, broken mess. A failure who can't do anything right. This is her fault, all of it. She had let her rage carry her to this point of no return, and now there's nothing she can do...

"So. Are you just going to stand there and wallow in self pity, or are you going to do something about it?"

Maddie jolts at the sudden voice, turning around to see the Red Huntress behind her. She's accompanied by a stranger, another ghost by the look of it. The strange new specter hides behind the Huntress in turn, keeping on the defensive.

"Red? What are you doing here? Who's that?" Maddie gawks, looking at the new ghost.

"I'm here to say I told you so, first off," Red replies. The smirk under the helmet is somewhat teasing, but her body language shows the tense anger she has behind it. "Secondly, I have some info for you, if you're actually willing to listen, that is-"

"I'm Danielle. Though, I prefer to go by Dani, with an I. Though when my cousin is around, I go by Elle," Dani steps out from behind Red, holding her hand out for a shake.

"Ghosts don't have families-" Maddie starts, but she's cut off by Dani giving her a very offended look.

"Ok, I'm a Halfa for your information, and yes, I do have family," she bites at her. Maddie feels her heart seizing again. The same icy bite from earlier digging it’s sharp teeth into her soul.

"Right, uh, sorry…" she stutters. Despite everything that's happened today, she's still using the same old methods to approach these situations? It's the first thing Maddie feels she should work on. Maybe she can earn back some semblance of respect from those close to her...

"Oh, it's not me you need to apologise to," Dani spits at her. "Save it for my cousin, okay? He needs to hear it, not you."

"Your cousin?" Maddie asks. "Who's your cousin?"

"Danny Phantom, duh!" Dani growls out in an exasperated tone. She waves her arms up and down to let out some frustration. "Seriously lady, get with the plot already."

"But Phantom was just… It's too late for me to apologise, after what Vlad did to him," Madie mutters, growing ashamed. She begins rubbing at her arm, picking on some loose threads in her lab coat.

"That's where the info comes in, I'm afraid," Red cuts in. "That ghost floating around with Vlad Plasmius isn't exactly the real Phantom."


	7. Phantoms of Mistrust

“That wasn’t the real Phantom?” Maddie can’t help but feel the slightest bit surprised. Still, looking back on things, the ghost, halfa, who even cares right now, had been acting odd compared to how Maddie had seen it, him, behave.

It’s still a stifling concept to wrap her mind around. Phantom is a halfa, just like her. All this time, they were one and the same. Even if Phantom was the one to turn her into this hybrid, he never did truly attack her since that day.

At this point, she doesn’t know if she was blinded to the truth, by the lies Vlad had filled her head with or her own burning rage that clouded her judgement with smoke and ashes. It was too much to take for one day.

Her son hates her, she’d given someone else’s child to an awful man to be hurt on purpose, and though her own unforgivable actions, once again threw her own life into turmoil. Maddie hadn’t felt this at odds with her own self since she acquired these ghostly powers.

Red can only give her a look of sympathy from across the room. “Come on, Tasma. After what Vlad did to Phantom, he might come for you next, we can’t stay here.”

“Yeah, it’s too dangerous out in the open like this,” Dani concurs. “We better get somewhere more private so we can make a plan.”

Maddie can only make a weak nod, still thrown off mentally. Her world had once again been tilted on its head and had yet to be righted in the chaos of everything around her. She needed space, and time to find air in the ocean of emotions and guilt.

But there was no time to breathe. In her heart, Maddie knows that her actions have unleashed something far worse than the threat she thought Phantom was before now. She’d given Vlad what he wanted out of petty revenge, and now the much more mature halfa now had a weapon moulded after the second hybrid she’d known.

With how powerful her own ghost is, Maddie dreads thinking of the chaos the two could cause. Worse still, with Vlad being the richest man on the planet, the things they could control through one means or the other are scarily infinite.

In order to counter them, they need a ghostly force of equal power. They won’t win with just her strength and that of the others, not against two other, vastly more powerful hybrids. They’re outclassed, severely. They need some kind of advantage.

They need the real Phantom back.

“Man, you space out just as much as my cuz does,” Dani interrupts her thoughts. “Come on, lady, enough standing around.”  
Dani grabs her by the arm and begins dragging her out of the mall by the wrist. The sound of Red’s hoverboard powering up follows her as she easily catches up to the pair of halfas.

“Come on. I know just the pair we can talk to about getting our Phantom back,” the hoverboard huntress declares, leading the way off into the sunset.

Maddie can only feel half-drowned in even more stress, as the quiet flight leaves her with plenty of time to think, to look back on everything leading up to capturing Phantom. Yes, the child had hurt her, and the child she had practically gotten killed, yet she found herself more angered than ever at her own actions in the end than his.

It hurt her not just as a person, but as a mother. The boy had to have been in his late teens, still so young, too young to juggle things she’d endured over the months. And Phantom had been a presence for years.

What on earth had that child been thinking, using those powers the way he did? To put himself in danger like that every day? Maddie can’t help realizing what a terrible act she had done.

She took someone’s child away. How unforgivable of her, how could she have done this? She couldn’t live with the idea of one of her own children being taken so violently as she had done to Phantom. His own parents must be worried sick about their son on a day to day basis, and now that child has been missing over a week.

Her son was already leaving her behind. He ran away for a week himself, before returning angry and resentful. And now, he wanted to leave again. He is leaving her again. Had what she’d done driven him away?

It was clear to Maddie now, why Phantom had become so renowned and loved by the people of the town. It was never a manipulation, Phantom had never taken advantage of humans to feed off them or influence them. No, it was something else entirely.

Being a halfa, Phantom had a humanity to him. Something sympathetic and tangible to relate to despite his ghostly nature that shined even when he was just a streak sailing through the air. Every cheer and jeer was undeniably human under a veil of ghostly energy, and she had ignored every part of it for her own biased opinions since the beginning.

No wonder her son hated her. Despite herself, she had proven to be a part of the ghosts she so vehemently hunted, blinded by her obsessions and rage even long before becoming a halfa herself. She’d put her own science before anything else and had become deplorable as a human being.

Her own pride had subjected a child who was in the same situation as her to torture, and in turn, she could never forgive herself. What kind of mother was she?

“Well, we’re here,” Red declares with a sigh, snapping Maddie out of her internal turmoil. “Just try to stay behind me, neither of them are going to be very happy to see you.”

As the armoured huntress approaches the door to the rather lavish manor, Maddie can’t help but recognize the area. Had she been to this part of town before? It probably isn’t that often, seeing as this must be the more upper-class area of the city.

Red rings the doorbell, the booming sound echoing through the halls as a familiar face answers the door. Lavender eyes assess the visitors before landing on her, and fury burns behind them in turn. Sam takes one look at Tasma and slams the door in everyone’s faces.

Red turns to knock this time. “Open up, Manson! You know why I brought her with me!”

“Screw off!” Comes the biting reply of Danny’s friend.

“You guys know you can’t save him alone!” Red hisses at the door, ringing the doorbell a few more times on repeat.

“We can and we will! Now get the ghost that caused this whole mess off our property before I get the ecto guns from my room!” Sam yells back with just as much frustration.

“We need Tasma, damn it! Remember what we saw when we tried to rescue him the first time?” Red counters. “We need to get that thing off him, and Ellie isn’t powerful enough alone to do it!”

“After what she did, what makes you think she won’t finish him off!? She already kicked him out of his own lair!” A third voice adds. It has to be Tucker in there, and he sounds just as aggravated as Sam does.

“What other choice do we have? If we don’t get him back, we won’t be able to keep Vlad from getting what he wants, let alone stop that doppelganger that bastard created!” Red hisses.

Maddie can only listen to them bickering as it drowns out into background noise. Sam and Tucker seem close to Phantom based on this conversation alone. If his friends were close to the young halfa, did that mean Danny was as well?

No wonder he denied their praise of Tasma. Although she had first thought his refusal to accept Tasma as a good ghost to be him heeding what he’d raised him to think, Danny being in league with Phantom seemed to open up so many more answers.

His quietness in recent years, how standoffish he’d become listening to them ramble, his frustration about the subject of Tasma, and now he’s running away with Phantom having been captured by Vlad. The dots all connect in her mind, and only serves to make her feel worse about what she has done.

The woman looks down at the ground beneath her feet. She didn’t want this to be true but everything made sense, too much so. Her son was somehow connected to Phantom, perhaps even closer than she ever would have suspected before.

Whether he had known the halfa’s human identity or had been introduced by the two who clearly knew Phantom, it didn’t matter. Danny saw Phantom as a friend, and Tasma as a foe, with very justified reasoning. In his eyes, she allied with a ghost that had kidnapped her friend, attempted to tell him that Tasma was doing the right thing in wronging Phantom and watched helplessly as the same evil took his friend away.

What kind of scientist, no, what kind of mother was she, to have not seen the signs? She had failed in the most basic steps of what was supposed to be her job and her responsibility.

“It’s the best chance we have!” Red’s desperate voice pulled Maddie out once again from her depressing thoughts as Red’s arm flashes almost directly under Tasma’s nose from the wild gesture.

By now, Sam had reopened the door a crack to continue arguing with the Red Huntress, both looking very fed up with the other. Had this sort of argument happened before?

Red takes a few glances around before trying to force her way into the door. The place is rather public to just keep arguing out on Sam’s front porch, upper class or not.

“And if you're wrong?! It could make things a million times worse! What if it’s not just Vlad next time? What if it’s the GIW? Who knows how far she’d be willing to go to remove an ‘enemy’ of hers?” Sam hisses back, leaning into the Red Huntress’ helmet, trying to keep the hunter out of her home.

If they were ghosts, their auras would be flaring wildly.

“Guys! We're wasting time here! Can we please just go and get him back?” Dani tries easily phasing in between the two warring teenage girls and pushing them back from one another.

“I kind of have to agree with her on this…” Tucker pipes up from behind Sam. “One of the bugs I reprogrammed from Vlad’s arsenal of them just recorded them leaving.”

“Fine.” Sam spits to Red before turning her steely glare to Tasma. “But she’s not allowed to be left alone at any time, regardless of what happens.”

Maddie sputters a bit. “I’m not going to attack you! I don’t harm humans!”  
“A lot of good that did Phantom,” Sam seethes venomously.

“That’s… I…” stutters the stunned halfa. “I didn’t know!”

“Not knowing isn’t an excuse. You’re the one who brought Phantom to Vlad, and you’re also the one who kept tormenting him day and night with some relentless vengeance quest! You and Red both,” Sam spits at the two.

Both of the mentioned huntresses fall silent at that, unable to find a counterargument. What Sam had accused them of is undeniably true. Blinded by their own rage, they both had let anger overtake reason when it came to hunting Phantom.

“That’s fair.” Red relented quietly. She scuffs her boots against the pavement of the porch and grips her arm, deep regret in her body language. “Still. I had my part to play in this, and I want to make it up to him. I want to get him back. I owe it to him,” her voice held strong determination.

“And you!” Sam turns her accusatory glare toward Tasma. “What makes you think we’re just going to let you “help” us rescue Phantom after what you did?”

“I… I made a mistake, I swear I didn’t know, I hadn’t put together, I never gathered the facts, I just acted and,” Maddie can feel her throat seizing as she talks, unable to find the words to explain her guilt and shame.

Both Sam and Tucker are giving her doubtful looks as she trips over her own words, unable to form a coherent sentence.

“I’m… sorry. I want to tell Phantom I’m sorry. His family must miss him so terribly after what I did to him, I… I want to make it up to him too…” she finally tells them.

“...Fine,” Sam finally decides. “But you do not leave our sights. We aren’t rescuing Phantom just for you to stab us in the back at the last minute.”

“Then… How are we doing this?” Maddie asks after a few tense seconds of silence, with all the children’s eyes turned to her in a mix of resentment and distrust. Why did it always have to be the children around her cutting into her soul? Just further proof of her being a terrible mother, and human, if she could even apply that label to herself any more...

“We use the Fenton’s portal to the ghost zone. We’ll have to make sure Danny’s parents aren’t home so we can hijack the speeder and make our way over to him.” Tucker offers helpfully, tapping on his PDA in some unknown manner.

“The… you’re planning on breaking into m- Maddie’s and Jack’s house?” Tasma half-shouts appalled at the thought of these children risking life and limb in the Ghost Zone. “You can’t possibly think that going through the portal is safe!”

Teaming up with Phantom, lying and now breaking and entering into her house to use dangerous lab equipment? How, how on earth could she have missed all of this? How long had this charade gone on under her nose?

“We’ve been in there plenty of times with Phantom.” Sam spat out to the woman, venom in her voice.

They had used the portal before? How many times? How much danger had these children subjected themselves to for Phantom’s sake? For the town’s sake?

“And just how do you plan on getting past the genetic lock? I mean, shouldn’t you call your friend Danny to let you in?” Maddie glares right back at the goth. There’s no way they could get past it without Danny, who had already long since run away. He didn’t tell her where he had gone, but surely his friends would know where he’d gone to, right?

“How do you know about the lock?” Sam asks suspiciously, eyes narrowing.

Without skipping a beat Maddie responds, ”Jack Fenton practically shouts how all his inventions work.” Thank heavens for small mercies. Her heart almost stopped with how she had almost let loose her identity that easily. Telling the group her human persona would only serve to further agitate them.

The teenagers all exchange quiet glances before shrugging the answer off in defeated acceptance.

“We… we can’t call Danny to let us in. It’s impossible at this point,” Danielle answers, keeping quiet to herself. Despite the group looking uneasy on the subject, it was clear they wouldn’t be telling her why they can’t contact her son.

What did that mean? Surely Danny was only running from her, what purpose would he have to keep his friends from contacting him? What had transpired in the week her boy was missing?

“We can get into the portal easy enough though, so don’t worry,” Tucker nods firmly, waving his PDA with a smirk growing on his face. Maddie had figured he was smart, but to hack into her genetic authentication system with a simple device like that?

If she wasn’t so confused and bewildered, she might give that boy a bit more credit. Tucker and Danny had been friends since preschool and seeing how smart he had actually grown now that he had graduated high school was pretty gratifying from a parental perspective.

Maddie was rather pleased that Danny had found a friend in preschool like Tucker. Jazz had never been one to make connections despite her love of psychology, and Danny talking on and on about his new friend and the cool game he had made her rather proud.

The Foley family was also a rather sweet group as well, and having them over for tea to talk about parenthood every few weeks while the children played video games together always put a smile on her face. Parenthood was easier with those to confide in.

If she even has the right to be a parent anymore after what she had done...

“I guess the next issue is who’s riding with Red, and who am I carrying to FentonWorks?” Dani asks. Sam and Tucker share a look with one another as if trying to read each other’s minds. With all the insanity of the last few days, Maddie wouldn’t put it past them.

“I’ll take Foley.” Red decides. “At least he won’t try to oversteer my board.”

Her glare under the helmet turns dark as she looks Tucker in the eye. “Though if your hand so much as flutters from my shoulder I will throw you off this thing.” She warns with a hiss.

“Suits me. I’ll take Dani over your sorry flying skills any day.” Sam shoots back flippantly. The aforementioned halfa seems to shrink as the two taller girls share a bit of a glare with each other.

Tasma felt out of place suddenly with the team’s dynamic. She didn’t have the trust of these kids, hadn’t earned it. They hated the monster born out of her own lust for revenge. Lecturing them on breaking and entering or lab safety didn’t seem appropriate given the tense situation, as much as she would love to right now.

Mother and professional ectobiologist Maddie Fenton would lecture them on these sorts of things, although with how close they might be to Phantom, she doubts she would be listened to. But, at least they wouldn’t be giving her human self these nasty looks.

But, right now she isn’t Maddie Fenton. She is Tasma, the no-good ghost, who can only hurt the children she’d come into contact with. She’s untrustworthy and hated by the small ragtag group of teens that amassed around Phantom, and for good reason.

As much as she wants to rush off and try to help fix what she had done to Phantom on her own accord, to make sure that she would not put any more kids in danger, it would do her no good to do so. These teenagers, these children, seem to know more about the Ghost Zone and the world around them than she and her husband did, and that fact does more than just unnerve her.

These children, when they should be worrying about their future dates and careers, instead work as a team of vigilante ghost hunters and fight the supernatural at a rate that Maddie and her husband, professional ghost hunters on paper at least, could possibly not even begin to comprehend.

It must have all been thanks to her son, who could easily bypass the genetic locks. This included the weapons vault and the portal, running his connection to Phantom deeper and deeper. He was the one letting the Phantom into the house and giving him access to their equipment, including the portal.

It makes her wonder just how often her boy entered the other realm without her knowledge, and how much of her boy’s life she had truly missed out on.

The travel time could have only been less comfortable for her if there was an ecto-gun poised to the back of her head ready to fire. From the looks, she was still getting from the group, there might as well have been. A physical burn from a weapon would pale in comparison to the aching of her heart.

It was another silent flight that felt like it took all too long before the group arrived at FentonWorks, filled with sidelong glances and glares directed to the elder halfa in the group’s midst. Maddie could only bow her head in shame and let their glares burn through her soul.

“Are you able to help with that?” Dani asks Tasma, causing the woman to rapidly blink at the smallest member of their group. At the blank look, Dani repeats her question. “You on one, end me on the other to phase everyone into the house.”

“Oh yes, That’s fine.” Tasma nods, offering out her hand to Red to take. The younger huntress huffs before hesitantly taking the offered limb, and the rest of the company soon follows through.

Maddie steels herself before flowing her intangibility across to meet up with Dani’s and phasing them into the lab. To think she’s using her power to break into her own house with a group of teenagers linked to Phantom… and her son.

It was odd… the place that always brought her so much joy before now never looked so foreboding. It was a place of death and ghostly destruction in more ways than one and she couldn’t really bring herself to face that fact at the moment with the looming foreboding threat of what may be happening to Phantom hanging over her head.

What are the vile spirits of the Ghost Zone doing to the young halfa that Vlad hadn’t done to him already? And why were there two Phantoms? Where had this second, red-eyed copy come from after she had turned the original over to that vile man?

So many questions wrack her brain as she heads toward the lab as quietly as possible. It would be better if Jack didn’t know this was happening after all. He’d take it a lot worse than she is, and she can’t burden her soulmate with this right now.

Tucker uses his PDA to rewire the security system for both the portal and the Specter Speeder parked on the lab floor. Maddie watches the teen’s dexterous fingers work, the locks clicking and the portal opening.

The door of the Speeder opens only a few moments later, and Maddie can’t help feeling impressed watching Tucker in action. Of course, she wishes it wasn’t being used to hack into her own technology, and she made a mental note to go over her security programs later, but she’s impressed nonetheless.

“Alright, here’s how this is going to work,” Dani sighs, looking toward the portal. “We’re going to go in and find him again, and then me and Tasma are going to work together to get that thing Vlad stuck to him off using our electric cores.”

“Excuse me, what thing?” Tasma can’t help but interrupt. She felt as if she was swimming in circles, left out of vital information and only having the vague scraps of conversation to work off of up until now. It was clear they wanted to keep her out of the know with how little they trusted her, but more information would be helpful. Jumping headfirst into danger with almost no info was never ideal.

“The shock collar. Vlad attached it to him and threw him in the Ghost Zone once he was done with him,” Dani sighs, looking disgusted at the thought.

Oh lord, a shock collar? Vlad had caged Phantom like some animal in the Ghost Zone! How vile that man, to attach a shock collar to a boy like that and feed him to the ghosts without a second thought! Was it to keep him from defending himself while locked within that realm? What kind of cruel punishment was that?

Vlad knew, he had to have known that Phantom was just like him, just like herself! And yet the man still used a shock collar to punish the child like some slave? Some pet? How dare he hurt a child with such cruelty and violence. Tossed aside like a used wrapper after he’d gotten what he wanted.

Maddie could feel her core beginning to burn with a new seething rage. She had always hated that man, and even the partnership had only been that of a temporary agreement, but this, what he had done, was far passed crossing the line.

He was going to pay dearly once all is said and done, Maddie vows it.

Still, she can’t help but look at the swirling of the portal with a bit of trepidation. Despite it being open for multiple years now, she nor Jack had ever mounted an expedition inside. They had sent probes to scan the dimension, but they only ever lasted an hour at most before losing their signal or coming back through the portal in pieces. It was simply too much of a risk to send a living human through to get mauled in the same way as the probes.

The irony of that thought was not lost on Maddie at all, for as little as even a week ago he would have relished in the fact that Phantom was no longer in Amity. The pest that was Phantom had plagued her since he had first appeared, seeming to taunt her skills as a hunter by always being one step ahead, one inch too far out of reach.  
And then, the power outage struck the town, causing her unbearable pain as the mainframe electrocuted her and cursed her with these powers. She was fuming at that point, and using the powers she had gained from the experience only seemed fit to punish Phantom for what he had done, not just to her, but the town.

And now, here she stands full of self-loathing and hatred actively playing a part in bringing the ghost, half-ghost she reminded herself adamantly, bringing the half-ghost back. Phantom was not just another spirit terrorizing the town. He had been cursed in much the same way, before any of what happened to her mattered.

Phantom wasn’t ever vengeful from what she had seen. There was no one single cause that he hunted down with the same fury she had for him. He fought every ghost with the same level of vigour and strength, never playing favourites with the spectres that invaded the town.

Amity Park needed Phantom. For so long she denied their similarities, but now at the edge of two dimensions, with only one goal in mind, it became clear how kindred their spirits were. They both wanted the same thing, but her constant animosity with him prevented any friendship they may have had. How much could they have helped one another, how much good could they have done for the town had she not been so bull-headed?

There’s only one thing left to do now, cross over to the Ghost Zone, and rescue the lost soul she had condemned. Maddie may not be able to make what she had done up to Phantom, but she can at least try to fix what she had broken and offer some semblance of understanding to him.

Maddie can’t help but feel nervous, excited and afraid all at the same time. She was going to enter the Ghost Zone for the first time in her lifelong career. Anyone would feel at least a bit like she does now. Who’s to say what she would find on the other side?

It has to be quick, though. And even if the danger isn’t directly present, Phantom can’t stay alone in that unnerving world of the dead any longer. What’s left of his life is in danger, and Maddie would be damned if another child is ever hurt by her actions again. She’s caused enough pain.

Everyone piles into the vehicle, leaving Maddie stranded in the back and under Red’s careful watch.

“Alright, on three everyone,” Sam declares, stepping up and taking the lead. Tucker grabs hold of the Speeder’s steering wheel as the rockets roar to life.

“One.” Maddie can’t help but swallow harshly.

“Two.” Her thoughts are a jumbled mess, but she knows she has to do this.

“Three.”


End file.
